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

by marvin＠rain.org

Does anyone know when the change took place from the squarish to the rounded end on the early Apple Macintosh mice 9 pin connector?

21 years, 11 months

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Computer Estate

by KParker＠workcover.com

How do you subscribe to Computer Collector +++++++++++++++++++ Kevin Parker Web Services Manager WorkCover Corporation p: 08 8233 2548 e: webmaster(a)workcover.com w: www.workcover.com +++++++++++++++++++ -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Computer Collector E-Mail Newsletter Sent: Tuesday, 11 May 2004 7:56 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only Subject: Re: Computer Estate Hi there, I'm not sure if he does estate sales, but I strongly suggest you contact Sellam Ismail, who owns a company in Silicon Valley called VintageTech. You may have seen his name on this list as well as "VCF" or "Vintage Computer Festival." Anyway, Sellam's pretty much the biggest collector in the known galaxy, and his company, VintageTech, lets him do this hobby for a living. You can reach Sellam at vcf(a)vintage.org. Why you should trust my opinion: I'm the founder/editor of Computer Collector, which is an online news magazine (with about 500 subscribers each week) serving the hobby. Good luck, -- Evan Koblentz (PS -- I personally collect handhelds and PDAs. If there are any in the collection, I'd like to look through the list.) --- Bogilady(a)aol.com wrote: > Is there a company or private party in the Pacific Northwest that specializes > > in liquidating computer estates? They date from the late 1970s to the mid > 1990s in various conditions. > > I really don't want to recycle them at scrap price if someone out there can > use them. > I figured ebay is a good place for anything unopened, but all the rest is > simply overwhelming. > > Help, suggestions, ideas and warnings are welcomed. > Cathy ************************************************************************ This e-mail is intended for the use of the addressee only. It may contain information that is protected by legislated confidentiality and/or is legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you are prohibited from disseminating, distributing or copying this e-mail. Any opinion expressed in this e-mail may not necessarily be that of the WorkCover Corporation of South Australia. Although precautions have been taken, the sender cannot warrant that this e-mail or any files transmitted with it are free of viruses or any other defect. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy the original e-mail and any copies. ************************************************************************

21 years, 11 months

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cd longevity

by aek＠spies.com

> what is the total file space needed to mirror all of bitsavers? currently, on the order of 20gBytes, going up about 50mBytes/day

21 years, 11 months

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Dayton, here I come!

by zmerch＠30below.com

I'm actually going to make it to the Dayton Hamvention this year, taking off Friday morning, for about a 9.5 hour drive... staying until Sunday morning/noonish, I believe. Any good things to see/do/visit/eat/drink whilst I'm there? Thanks, and who knows? Maybe I'll finally meet someone else on the list "like, in person, eh?" ;-) Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Profile, don't speculate." sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | Daniel J. Bernstein zmerch(a)30below.com |

21 years, 11 months

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Proof of concept

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

The sample is attached!

21 years, 11 months

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IEM HP-IB devices (was Cool stuff!)

by vp＠cs.drexel.edu

"Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> wrote: > About a month ago I picked up what I thought were a couple of HP-IB > disk drives made by a compnay by the name of IEM of Ft. Collins Colorado. I have an IEM HP-IB tape drive (a 4400 series). I posted a similar request for info on cctalk a couple of months ago, but nobody responded. My box has an HP-IB to SCSI motherboard and an HP 4.0Gb DAT SCSI tape drive. > [...] It has a LCD > display on and it [...] There are also three buttons on it > marked Select, Next and Previous. Mine has the same panel and buttons. I tried your trick with the select button and it gave me a similar demo (nice trick, thanks). It claims to work with MPE and HPUX and to be compatible with the HP 7978 tape drive (and the C1511 whatever that is). Unfortunately, my Integral PC does not recognize this drive. I suspect that the motherboard for the tape drive is the same as the one in your optical jukebox, but with different ROMs. There is also a DIP switch in the back (for setting HP-IB address and various options) and a bunch of jumpers inside. I have no idea what they are supposed to do. If you want I can take a photo of the motherboard and send it to you. **vp

21 years, 11 months

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IBM Ssytem/7 restoration project needs a operator panel.

by stegeman.h＠12move.nl

Hi all, I am currently restoring an old IBM System/7 to running condition. Please see http://www.anysystems.nl/system7.html#Top for pictures of this restoration project. I am currently searching desperately for an operator front panel of this system. See: http://www.anysystems.nl/history/system7/operator.panel.jpg Who can help me ? Thanks for any reactions. Regards Henk Stegeman IBM restorer.

21 years, 11 months

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FA: Collection of Otrona Attache Parts -- Complete System?

by patrick＠vintagecomputermarketplace.com

I collected a number of Otrona parts over the years with the intent of reassembling them into a working system, but that hasn't happened, and I think other interests are going to keep me from ever spending the time it needs. I think almost everything you need to build a basic working system is here. I have the following items available, up at auction on the Vintage Computer Marketplace... http://marketplace.vintage.org/bid.cfm?ad=727 All items are completely and totally untested. Links to photos are on the listing at the link above. * Six CPU boards, "pulls"... Most with parts on them, one bare board. The ones with parts all have some parts missing that I think are relatively easy to find: 765 floppy controller chip, Z80 PIO or SOI, or 5027 video controllers, etc. Only one board has a 5027 on it, but I also have a "loose" 5027 that I will include. I have EPROM images for the CPU board EPROMs. * Three floppy drives loose plus two in their chassis components--the special not-quite-half-height drives the Attache used; * GPIB cards in various states of assembly, rework, or disassembly. I believe there is also an 8086 card, but it's stripped of parts. * Case and chassis parts that I believe are enough to build (or reface) a complete unit, include outside cover, two rear bezels (one with PSU attached to it), a front bezel still wrapped in foam, keyboard shell top and bottom halves, handle; * Additional keyboard assembly, dirty, but usable; plus three keyboards without case. * One video/CRT field replacement unit (tube + boards + mounting hardware), plus an extra video board, extra yoke, and another incomplete video assembly. I think I also have a third partial assembly in a box; if I find it, it will be included. * A number of expansion/daughter cards for 25th line, graphics, and high-res graphics; some are loose, but some are mounted to CPU boards (see photos). * CP/M boot disks in unknown condition (images also available from Don Maslin, I believe). * Binder with schematics.

21 years, 11 months

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OT: eBay item forwarder needed (from USA to Germany)

by bernd＠kopriva.de

Hi, i'm the winner of an eBay auction for an AMI Goliath board. The seller doesn't want to ship internationally (i asked him before, but got no response in time ...). Can anyone accept delivery and forward the stuff to me ? I will pay of course for all expenses ! Thanks alot Bernd

21 years, 11 months

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VCM Listings

by marvin＠rain.org

Just a heads up; I have started to list stuff on the Vintage Computer Marketplace. The things being listed are what I can easily get to right now :). http://marketplace.vintage.org/ Besides what I am listing, there are some other interesting things there!

21 years, 11 months

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DEC vt100 terminal stuff / parts available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have 2 VT100 terminals plus a vt100 plastic shell that I'm parting out. They are VERY yellowed cases, obviously a smoking environment. Definitely some screen burnin too. On at least one of them the fasteners that hold the top of the case to the bottom of the case are broken. I don't think they are worth much more than the junk heap. They all power up and go into setup mode just fine. They are all true VT100's, not 102's, etc. Some or all of the keyboards are missing some keycaps. I think one keyboard may have all it's keys. In addition, I have a vt102 without the top or bottom case. It is in perfect working order, clean, and no burnin with one major flaw. The metal band around the front of the tube has slipped, meaning two of the L brackets that are held down by that band have slipped back so the monitor is about 1/2 inch forward of where it should be. Thus it won't fit into a plastic case quite right. The band is too tight to push the L brackets back into place, and I'm not comfortable cutting that band and trying to put a new one in place (something about working with a large glass object under pressure scares me a bit). So far my plan is to keep the vt102 chassis as spares, and ditch the 2.1 vt100's. If anyone wants me to scavenge parts (logic board, power supply board, flyback, transformer, keycaps, crt tube, etc.) I would be happy to do that. Total price for each shipment will be shipping cost + 5 bucks (unless you just want a keycap or something)...negotiable. The only stipulation is you must let me know in a day or two, I'm itching to get them out of the house and gone. Jay West --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

21 years, 11 months

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opinions on very long term storage and references from Google search

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

The best long-term storage method I know of is to inscribe the information on a tablet of wet clay and bake it in an oven, after which it becomes hard as rock. Sumerians did this 6000 years ago and their writings are still perfectly readable. MS

21 years, 11 months

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DEC 11/23, RL01s,RX01s,VT100,LA120

by beclassic＠att.net

I am just about ready to rid myself of the DEC equipment I have. I'm starting with the classic computer mailing list, but I may part the stuff out on e-bay. I want to preserve the equipment and related manuals, but I'm also not ready to just make a gift. The equipment was purchased in 1979 with updates in maybe 1981. It was used in my business and has only been moved once (Fall, 2001). It is now in my garage which is obviously not air conditioned. Most of the manuals and printed materials are in a storage room a few miles away in "conditioned" air. The computer was used primarily as a BASIC processor, but we also had compiled Dibol applications we developed (actually DBL). I have the mid-height (42") newer-looking cabinet containing the processor and dual RL01's. The dual RX01 unit is stand-alone, desk-top unit with matching exterior. The original basic unit was an 11T03 with an 11/03 processor. After a few years I swapped the processor to an 11/23 (dual size M8186): KDF11-AC with KTF11-AA makes the cpu a KDF11-AA. Also added KEF11-AA FPU to help my number crunching. Current memory is 256K (MSV11-LK). The monitor is a VT100 with an extra board for advanced video, plus a tilt-swivel stand (DEC version). I also have an LA120BA terminal unit with keyboard that I used as the wide-carriage printer. I generally used TSX and at one time had a time-sharing client using a proprietary program through a 1000 baud modem. I believe the latest RT11 I used was v.3B, but v.4 may also be there. I have the usual stuff that went with operating the machine: - printed docs ( box of paper ) for diagnostics, plus microfiche version - original diagnostics on RL01 - original manuals for each item (I think) - some hardware diagrams/schematics, along with installation booklets - 8-10 of the small paperback books of equipment from DEC - 4-5 large blue notebooks from DEC regarding operating system, etc. - maybe 9 RL01 disk packs in total - a few used RX01s - software - RT11, BASIC, Fortran?, TSX?, DBL? - some confusion in this since the distributions came from a third-party developer via RL01, not from DEC on distribution-type media. The CPU and memory seem fine. The bottom RL01 powers up but shows a fault light; the other works fine. Both RX01 drives work. The VT100 works fine. Haven't tried the LA120 lately. I recently hooked a PC as the console and used Kermit to transfer all the data on the RL01s. I have slowly been trying to separate my data from DEC data on the RL01s and do a wipe routine after, thus protecting client data. Maybe I'll only release half of the RL01s. I've infrequently reviewed the digest versions of this mailing list, but this is my first attempt to participate. I am switching from digest so that I can try to be responsive on-line (generally between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm EST). Are other times more appropriate? I can also answer emails, generally within a half day. I can maybe get some pictures on-line, but most of the participants in this list know what they're dealing with. I'm in central South Carolina. bill bailey

21 years, 11 months

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Mac Plus with (minor) issues

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Update: At 14:14 -0500 4/29/04, Mark Tapley wrote: >1) Screen display is too far to the left. At 23:59 +0100, 4/29/04 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) replied: > On the back of the yoke are 2 metal plates. >Rotating them, either together or in oposite directios, will move the >picture (strictly the raster, but anyway..) around on the screen. Got the machine far enough apart to spot those and play with them yesterday. Sure enough, that fixed the screen-shift (and it's almost a certainty that I disturbed them when I took out the Elf Armor). FWIW, the plates are perpendicular to the path of the electrons in the CRT and more or less centered on that path near the back end of the CRT. They are circular (umm, annular? I can't see anything but a mm or two at the rim of the circle), and have little tabs at 2 locations 180 degrees apart. There are 2 plates, stacked together. They are "finger tight". I fooled with them while watching the image, but I used an insulated tool, so I didn't fool with them much. A slight twist (maybe 15 degrees) on one of them moved the image right where I wanted it. Thanks, Tony! Still in the to-do list: ordering a new rectifier (thanks, Chris!) against the day my CR5 dies (but it seems OK right now, picture is fine and steady) and borrowing an o-scope to see how much ripple is on the 5V line. And probably saving up for an ESR meter to test the caps around the connector that goes to the digital board, and probably getting a new capacitor or two. And retouching J4. After the picture adjust, coincidentally, machine ran fine for several hours yesterday (all the time I could spend on it). Love that BrainStorm! -- - Mark 210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967

21 years, 11 months

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7 track tape terminal

by aw288＠osfn.org

I have an extra Mohawk Data Services 7 track (!) tape terminal available. Basically, it is a tape drive with a keyboard - oh the weird stuff they used to do back then! Anyway, this is a late 60s (probably) all transistor and core box, about five feet tall and 300 pounds. It takes standard tapes. I don't think the thing is completely working right now, as I can't get it to do much, and a light blinks as in "something wrong!". I have no docs on the thing. I should also say that the keyboard on this thing moved the bar as far as how bad human engineering can get. Anyway, I want to make it go away, so if anyone has stuff to trade (no micros, please - (cruddy) big stuff or docs are good) or has a little cash (were not talking much here folks - scrap value is probably only $100), we can deal. I can deliver to VCFeast or anywhere near NY/NJ/CT/RI. I could ship it as well, as I do have a sort of crate thing. Let me know! Please, I need the room! William Donzelli aw288(a)osfn.org

21 years, 11 months

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Heathkit 3400 Microcomputer Trainer

by marvin＠rain.org

There is a Heathkit 3400 Microcomputer including manual up on Ebay with a starting bid of $30.00. It appears to be in the wrong catagory, so it might be missed by some: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1504&item=3814941860…

21 years, 11 months

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Apple II - LPS II Gibson Light Pen

by adamg＠pobox.com

I have a "Gibson Light Pen by Koala", with software and docs. Does anyone know if this is truly the "sucessor" to the LPS II or just a repackaged version? -- Adam

21 years, 11 months

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Hyperions

by brianmahoney＠look.ca

Over the years, I have been pretty successful in acquiring Hyperions. Actually the bulk of my collection is Hyperions. A recent letter to the group made me pause and think about the future of my Hyperions. I won't sell them but I would love to have them with someone who can sort out the hardware and the manuals and make the information available to those who are interested. At this point I have too much on my plate to do this myself. Trades will be considered but not outright sales. I've contacted a couple of the Canadian museums with an offer of this equipment but haven't been honored with a reply. Soooo, Canada is good but if they have to go to the states, so be it. No shipping though, only pick-up in Scarborough. Points for anyone who is interested in these units : 1. Are they of interest to someone who could pick them up in Toronto (Scarborough actually, 20 minutes from the CN tower.)? I won't ship them. 2. My original Hyperion, which I purchased and am keeping, does not boot so the others may be in the same condition and I already know that at least one of the storage towers has had some trace problems, if that's what you call them. There are about 6 complete units, one for parts and two storage towers that are about two by three feet and very heavy (maybe 50 pounds or more.) 3. I'd like to keep one set of manuals but there are doubles and triples of just about everything plus boxes of software and records from their original site which was a Canadian tech college. 4. There would have to be some agreement that this stuff wouldn't be sold as I was given all of it under the condition that I wouldn't sell it. If you have a museum and are interested in this stuff, that would be absolutely prime. 5. All of the material has to be kept together. I'm not going to piece it out. It has value both monetary and historically and I would love if it could be in a bricks and mortar museum somewhere. That's about it. Volume is probably a stretch mini-van full or a bit more. If nothing happens with this, I will obviously keep it all and hope my kids will be interested in it in about ten years. If you have some ideas, let me know at : antique101(a)hotmail.com I may add to this if I've forgotten anything important. bm

21 years, 11 months

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Restoring a VAXstation 3500

by trash3＠splab.cas.neu.edu

The RD53s are toast, but is the controller O.K.? I'll lend you an RD54 with some version of VMS on it if you want to try to boot that way. Either way, I have a MVII with some RD54s on it (maxtor 2190s I believe) and maybe a loaner rqdx3. and we can talk about the back door also. BTW, I am coming up on my vacation, so I'll get back to you about the other qbus stuff I have, if you still want an LSI-11 flavor machine... Joe Heck And no, I haven't forgotten Curt, Steve and the many others who have asked about the "stuff" I am getting rid of. During the month of June when I am off from work, I'll get back to all the emails I saved about my equipment.

21 years, 11 months

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cd longevity

by aek＠spies.com

> The only real chance is to make sure that the data has redundant storage. Paper burns well. Why is it that many of the classic systems we like have no docs. These docs were on paper. One type of storage is no solution at all. === This is EXACTLY why I created bitsavers.org >> I << don't want to have the only surviving copy of a paper document or program. The problem is, there are no 'real' mirrors (I can see in the logs that dozens of people are mirroring it for themselves..)

21 years, 11 months

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PDP-11 RESCUE needed in northern California (Castro Valley)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 9, 0:26, Guy Sotomayor wrote: > On Sat, 2004-05-01 at 12:38, Fred Cisin wrote: > > > How well does DEC stuff handle weather? > > Poorly. > > Paul, Fred and myself collected all of this last weekend. Our > "adventure" is now up on my web site at: > http://www.shiresoft.com/pdp-11/rescue/index.html Ow! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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Heathkit H8 emulators

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

Things are jumping over at www.sebhc.org , with more than 70 members committed to the preservation of Heathkit 8-bit computers - come take a look. Several of us have tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with either Dave Shaw or Dave Wallace, both of whom created websites featuring H8 emulation, one Mac-based, the other Windows-based. While email addresses are available, no-one has had a recent response from either Dave. Can anyone on classiccmp provide some help - 1) working email addresses for Dave Shaw or Dave Wallace, or possibly for reviewers of their emulators, including Larry Bledsoe, Steve Novosad, Charles Horn, Neal Granroth, Stanley Webb, or Bob Myers; 2) did anyone download the emulator source or support files from Dave Shaw's defunct website? Any help appreciated! Jack

21 years, 11 months

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Apochryphal?

by vcf＠siconic.com

Found while scouring Usenet for something totally unrelated: "Well, you never know what someone might be doing with old, but usable, hardware. I have heard that there is a major bank in Great Britain that keeps an IBM 360 running because its 1401 emulator emulates a 704 (as did the original 1401) for a program whose Autocoder source was lost long ago. Also, don't underestimate the geek factor. Was AlphaLISP ever ported to Alpha Micro's 680x0 line? "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets and then teams up with three complete strangers to kill again." -- TV listing for "The Wizard of Oz" in a Marin County newspaper," Posted 2002-04-03 by one Michael Roach. Apocryphal? Who knows. Might be worth following up one... -- 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, 11 months

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Atari Gurus! Dos Commands?

by ron.hudson＠sbcglobal.net

I just downloaded an atari 800 emulator for my Ibook. When I have written a basic program how do I save it to floppy? How do I load it again? Directory list? the emulator has 8 diskette drives, how do I specify them in my commands? Any good sites on the Internet with simple stuff like that - I can find basic sites, and Assembly language sites but I don't see anything on DOS sites. Thanks!

21 years, 11 months

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Find: HP 97

by mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA

I just picked up an HP 97 at a church rummage sale. It was sold "tel quel" ("as is"), so it was a bit of a gamble, but I figured if it was broken it'd be even more fun 'cause then I would feel no compunction about opening it up and Investigating. The battery pack appears dead (based on a 1kohm/volt voltmeter, it's producing about .1V) and it didn't come with a wall wart. But the battery pack was visibly made up of four cells, so I figured four rechargeable cells is probably about 5V - and the external power connector is marked 5V. So I hooked it up to 5V from a peecee power supply (peecees are good for _something_; they provide me with power supplies :), and it seems to be in full working order. Even the printer works (though the ribbon appears a little enfeebled). All I need to do is find a manual for the thing. Anyone know of one? Google found me a few places _selling_ scanned copies of the manual, but none civilized enough to have it up for fetching. The thing cost me all of five bucks. :) Maybe not quite on a par with an ASR33, but it's also a lot easier for me to find space for. As yet I may be but a dilettante when it comes to old computing gadgets, but *I* think it has a healthy dose of gamish! /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse(a)rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

21 years, 11 months

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RL02 '3' button spoken for

by jpl15＠panix.com

I've set up a trade with another Listmember who needs a '3' as much as I need a '1' - so Things have worked out well! Thanks to all who have responded so far! Cheers John

21 years, 11 months

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Semi OT: Tech TV goes gamer?

by thompson＠new.rr.com

Does the "gamer" lifestyle include classic computers or are we unlikely to see Sellam on there again? Comcast Agrees to Purchase TechTV Thursday, March 25, 2004 Comcast recently announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire TechTV, a cable network focused on cutting-edge technology and the impact of technology on daily life, from Vulcan Programming Inc. When the deal closes, Tech TV will be merged with G4, the Comcast-owned television network devoted to video games and the "gamer" lifestyle.

21 years, 11 months

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Microvax 3100-95 SCSI oddity

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Folks, Spent a day troubleshooting this one so I'm wondering if any of you have come across this before: 3100-95 with internal SCSI set at ID 7. Give it a boot disk at any free ID and another device (doesn't matter what) at ID 6. At the dead sergeant prompt all the devices are visible, but boot VMS 7.2 and whatever device you have at ID 6 is not seen unless it's the boot disk itself in which case it shows up as DKA600. Is there something hard-coded into VMS for MicroVAX 3100s that always assumes the SCSI controller is at ID 6 no matter what? I know that older 3100s always had the controller at 6 and I don't remember it being changeable.... Most odd :) Cheers! -- Adrian/Witchy Owner & Webmaster, Binary Dinosaurs www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - possibly the UK's biggest online computer museum www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - ex-monthly gothic shenanigans :o(

21 years, 11 months

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Trade RL02 'ready' button

by jpl15＠panix.com

I have discovered a couple of RL02 (and other drives) 'READY' buttons, which also determine the drive's 'number' in the system, 0-3. I would like to trade a brand-new '3' button for a '1' button that is known good. I have several RL02 drives, all of them '0' devices. I'll pay shipping to you. Straight trade, no money involved. Cheers John

21 years, 11 months

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Summagraphics tablet?

by mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA

Does anyone know, or know of a reference to, the serial-line protocol spoken by Summagraphics tablet digitizers (specifically, the MM1103)? I have one. After a bit of detective work, I got it to at least somewhat work. I now have it to the point where I can connect it up and turn it on. When I do, I get nothing until one of the buttons on the puck is pressed, at which point it starts generating a stream of samples, continuing for as long as some button is pressed. The format is fairly easy, just %04d,%04d,%1d\n sent with the 0x80 bits set to provide even parity, where the four-digit numbers are the location (based on an 8.5" edge of a piece of paper and some arithmetic, it appears to be 200dpi) and the last indicates what button is pressed. This makes it all at least somewhat usable. But I'd really like to be able to get samples back even when no buttons are pressed, whence my question. The back does include a sticker saying, among other things, "BIT PAD FORMAT", which may or may not mean anything useful. I did go a-googling, but either there's nothing to be found or I didn't guess the right incantation to find it. `Summagraphics MM1103 serial protocol' turns up no hits - though it probably will once this message gets archived and googled :) - and neither did `"bit pad format"'. It _is_ on-topic; there's a sticker on the back with a Date: field containing a handwritten date that is clearly in 1984 (it appears to read "10/17/84"), which contains other text implying it was added by a leasing/service organization. Thoughts? /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse(a)rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

21 years, 11 months

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slightly OT: tape backup

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 8, 8:09, Joe R. wrote: > I think I have a couple of Exabyte 8200 drives laying around if you want > one and are willing to pay shipping from the US. > At 12:05 AM 5/8/04 +0100, you wrote: > >Slightly off topic: I need to recover some data (about 500MB) from a > >tape written 8 years ago on an 8mm ExaByte 8200. Thanks for the offer. I think I'll pass on that, though (unless things change) as I've had a couple of offers in private email. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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Need Bernoulli cartrige

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Hello, I'm working on an old Bering 8020RM HP-IB disk drive that uses a removable disk cartridge. I found that it uses a Bernoulli drive and it uses a 8" cartridge. I THINK the disk is 20Mb but I'm not sure. Does anyone have an old 8" Bernoulli disk that I can try in it? Joe

21 years, 11 months

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slightly OT: tape backup

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

Slightly off topic: I need to recover some data (about 500MB) from a tape written 8 years ago on an 8mm ExaByte 8200. Ultimately I need it transferred to a hard disk but DAT (DDS or DDS2) or DLT (anything that can be read on a DLT7000) would be an excellent intermediate step. Does anyone in the UK have the ability to do that for me? I can provide the DDS or DLT tape. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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qbus mscp ctlr manuals

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 7, 19:57, SHAUN RIPLEY wrote: > already gone? Drat! Sorry about that, in my haste at the end of the day, I got the file permissions for external access wrong (and a couple of the links). The links should work now. Several people mailed me privately to tell me; you're all welcome to make copies/backups/mirrors/whatever. I also didn't have time yesterday to find a copy of tiffcp and convert the big g3-compressed TIFFs to g4-compressed. I've done that now; sometime shortly after 1300 BST today (Saturday) I'll change the index.html file to point to the g4-compressed TIFFs, which are *much* smaller (a factor of 3). > --- Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> wrote: > > We also mentioned DEC's UDA50 Programmer's Documentation Kit a > > while ago. I had a chance to play with a new scanner at work > > today, so I've provided scans of all three documents in the set, > > as TIFFs and PDFs. Due to lack of space I can't keep them there > > very long, but for the moment they're at > > > > http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~pnt1/MSCP/ -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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slightly OT: tape backup

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 8, 8:27, Nico de Jong wrote: > From: "Pete Turnbull" <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > > Slightly off topic: I need to recover some data (about 500MB) from a > > tape written 8 years ago on an 8mm ExaByte 8200. > > Does anyone in the UK have the ability to do that for me? I can > > provide the DDS or DLT tape. > > Denmark good enough ? If no-one closer offers, yes :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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DEC Diagnostic Disks (incl long listing)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 7, 21:33, Christian Fandt wrote: > This is great Pete, thanks very much. I printed and filed the index with my > disks. In a month or two I may have time to fire up my Micro PDP-11 and see > how they work. But first . . . > > Two more questions: > > 1.) Are the HELP.TXT files found on a couple of disks fairly detailed or > are they rather terse? They won't help much with individual diagnostics, but they do tell you how to do things in general. > Is an XXDP manual online anywhere? Some time ago (about 11 years) I created a document about how to use XXDP; it's called "Notes for XXDP+ and XXDP V2 Operating Systems" and it's at http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/PDP-11/ In fact, IIRC, I put that doc on the web in response to a request from you (Christian) several years ago :-) There are PostScript and (thanks to the kind services of another listmember, Bill King) PDF versions. It's also mirrored on at least one other site which also has some XXDP info. XXDP is an enhanced version of the original XXDP (there's also one we used to refer to as XXDP++, but I'm not sure either name was offical), and V2 is what came out with the later microPDP-11s. V2 is a bit friendlier. The document consists of notes I made in the mid-80s when I was on a DEC maintenance course, plus reformtted stuff from the V2 files. So long as you remember that much of it uses the V2 commands, and replace them with the V1 equivalent, it will be useful. The one thing I never got round to doing -- because I have it on paper,in various forms -- is a list of *exactly* what each diagnostic is. There's a partial (very incomplete) list at http://www.chd.dyndns.org/pdp11/xxdp25.notes.txt See also http://starfish.osfn.org/rcs/pdp-11/xxdp/ Will Kranz also had some stuff -- he was working on how to completely decode an XXDP disk, but his site at earthlink has disapeared. > I checked > bitsavers.org already - just something on DEC/X11 extant. In one of those > X11 manuals mention is made of an XXDP+ manual with an Order Number of > AC-F348?-MC (Yes, there's a "?" printed in that number. See page three of > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/XXDP/AC-F055D-MC_X11crossRef.pdf .) I've never seen that, though I'm sure it will exist somewhere. If nowhere else, it should be at the front of any complete set of XXDP microfiche. > 2.) Pete indicates these are a basic set of XXDP (XXDP++) disks for a > microPDP-11/23. What functionality will they have on my 11/73 (or a 11/53 > if I build one up from a heap of parts on hand)?? Actually I think they are XXDP V2, now that I think about it (I don't have a system with an RX50 on it at the moment, to check). They'll test most of the basic hardware in the machine. Read the document and the list I referred to; it'll let you work out what hardware the tests are for. But to actually use certain of them effectively, you really ought to have the listings of the individual diagnostics. They don't all print nice messages; sometimes you need to know what the "switch settings" are to make them do certain things, sometimes they just halt on error and you can't tell what happened unless you can look up the error address in the listing. For example, for the ZKMA memory test: bit 15 set = halt on error bit 14 set = loop in selected subtest (see bits 0-3) bit 13 set = don't print errors bit 12 set = enable memory management bit 11 set = enable parity testing (default is ignore parity bits) bit 10 set = halt after each sub-test bit 9 set = don't do program relocation (so it can't test all of memory) bit 8 set = test in blocks of 4K, and print the first failing bit in each block bit 7 set = enable "long galloping test" (takes a while :-)) bit 6 set = don't size the memory (normally the diagnostic tries to work out how much memory there is to test) bit 5 set = don't print "END PASS xx" (normally does this every time round the loop) bit 4 set = don't print anything bits 0 to 3 are used to select a single subtest. See bit 14. Machines used to come with paper listings (though I think that practice stopped around the time of microPDP-11s) and some sites had the set on microfiche (one and a half boxes about 15" deep, so it's a LOT of microfiche for the whole set). We've discussed this on the list several times before. Maybe I should dig out the rest of my XXDP paper notes and scan them :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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cd longevity

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org> > >This has been discussed on this list a few times before... but I just came >across a rather detailed article about the topic of longevity of CD, DVD, >and CDRW media. > >I'm thinking the best long term storage solution is... paper printouts. How >retro :) > ---snip--- The only real chance is to make sure that the data has redundant storage. Paper burns well. Why is it that many of the classic systems we like have no docs. These docs were on paper. One type of storage is no solution at all. When I look at things like older floppies, the biggest failure I've seen was the higher end floppies with the inner liners. The self sticking adhesive eventually migrated through the liner to the disk surface. Of course wear and tear is an issue for those in constant use but I'm more concerned here with archiving. As you can easily see there is no especially great storage media. Each has its downfalls. Redundancy in media types as well as redundancy in the actual data stored are the only chances we have. As the article points out, there are unforeseen problems with most every single method. Any valid system must allow for this and respond to this in a preplanned procedure. I store my valued information on as many storage types as I can. There are practical limits for me. I try to get others to duplicate what I have ( with limited success ). What if my house burned. What if the roof fails and the rain comes in. What if I die. What if, what if.... We are solidly into the "Lost Information Age". Dwight

21 years, 11 months

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Cleaning a *DIRTY* old VT52

by Ashley＠carderweb.com

What's the best way to clean up a dirty old VT52? The case is dirty and some of the keys are a bit dirty and stick when pressed. Ashley

21 years, 11 months

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qbus mscp ctlr manuals

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 7, 15:01, Al Kossow wrote: > > People who have been thinking about building an IDE MSCP > Qbus controller may find these two manuals interesting: > > http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dilog/2120-0088_DQ226um_Dec85.pdf > http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/webster/SRQD11um_1984.pdf We also mentioned DEC's UDA50 Programmer's Documentation Kit a while ago. I had a chance to play with a new scanner at work today, so I've provided scans of all three documents in the set, as TIFFs and PDFs. Due to lack of space I can't keep them there very long, but for the moment they're at http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~pnt1/MSCP/ -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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HP 85-86 roms

by vp＠cs.drexel.edu

Olivier De Smet <desmet(a)cnam.fr> wrote: > I was wondering if it's possible to use rom dump as binary program > (loaded with loadbin), perhaps with some "relocations" ? Unfortunately this is not possible, unless you can disassemble the ROM and then reassemble the code with the desired "relocation" address (ORG). This is also the reason why HP-86/87 binary programs are incompatible with HP-83/85 machines and vice versa. A better bet is to try to find a programmable ROM drawer on eBay etc. Check also www.series80.org for other info on HP 85-86. Best Regards **vp

21 years, 11 months

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Life with PDP-11's.

by mbg＠TheWorld.com

>Nothing like walking across the parking lot with the system disk in one >hand and the backup copy in the other. I was careful not to drop either >pack. I joined the RT-11 development team in 1978... and got my first office in the mill. At that time we had a lab full of systems where we did our development and testing. Occasionally there were fire alarms and evacuation drills at the mill. It was not unusual to see a bunch of us with our RK05 (or RL01,02) disks which contained the most recent RT sources, out in the parking lot. The first thought many of us had when the alarms went off was to power down the drive and get the disk... then calmly exit the building...:-) Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL,ST| email: mbg at world.std.com | | Member of Technical Staff | megan at savaje.com | | SavaJe Technologies, Inc. | (s/ at /@/) | | 100 Apollo Drive | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Chelmsford, MA 01824 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (978) 256 6521 (DEC '77-'98) | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

21 years, 11 months

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DEC Diagnostic Disks (incl long listing)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 19:00, Christian Fandt wrote: > I've got a set of DEC diagnostic floppies (RX50) and I don't have the > decoding scheme at hand to figure out the part number and therefore their > usage. I don't know which machine these run on -- Micro PDP-11 or MicroVAX. > > I sort of suspect they *may* be for my uVAX II because they came with a > heap of other goodies, including a working uPDP-11/73, at the same time I > got said uVAX II. > > Given the part numbers listed below could anyone tell me about them (other > than the obvious ;-) )? > > BL-T540B-M1 CZUFDB1 USER TESTS > BL-T541B-M1 CZXD1B1 FIELD SERVICE TESTS 1 > BL-T542B-MC CZXD2B0 FIELD SERVICE TESTS 2 > BL-T565B-MC CZXD3B0 FIELD SERVICE TESTS 3 > BL-T583B-MC CZXD4B0 FIELD SERVICE TESTS 4 These are a basic set of XXDP (XXDP++) disks for a microPDP-11/23. Here's a listing from my set: DIR DU1: (CZXD1B1 Field Service Tests 1) ENTRY# FILNAM.EXT DATE LENGTH START VERSION 1 HUDIB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 5 000073 ?.? 2 HSAAD1.SYS 22-JUN-83 24 000100 ?.? 3 HMDLD1.SYS 4-AUG-83 17 000130 ?.? 4 HMDXC1.SYS 4-AUG-83 17 000151 ?.? 5 HMDYC1.SYS 4-AUG-83 17 000172 ?.? 6 HDDDC0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000213 ?.? 7 HDDKB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 2 000216 ?.? 8 HDDLC0.SYS 3-MAR-83 4 000220 ?.? 9 HDMMB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000224 ?.? 10 HDMTB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000227 ?.? 11 HDMSB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000232 ?.? 12 HMDQA1.SYS 4-AUG-83 17 000235 ?.? 13 HDDQA0.SYS 24-MAR-83 4 000257 ?.? 14 XTSAA0.OBJ 14-JAN-82 10 000263 15 HDDXB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000275 ?.? 16 HDDYB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000300 ?.? 17 HDKBB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 1 000303 ?.? 18 HDLPA0.SYS 3-MAR-83 1 000304 ?.? 19 HDPDB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 3 000305 ?.? 20 XRQAB0.OBJ 1-OCT-83 18 000310 21 HDPTB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 1 000332 ?.? 22 HELP .TXT 3-MAR-83 14 000333 23 UPD2 .BIN 3-MAR-83 25 000351 24 DXCL .BIN 3-MAR-83 25 000402 25 XMOND0.LIB 3-MAR-83 180 000433 26 XCPAG0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 5 000717 27 XCPBJ0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 5 000724 28 XKWEB0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 5 000731 29 XDZBC0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 7 000736 30 XIBAD0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 000745 31 XDRFD0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 8 000751 32 XDMDC0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 14 000761 33 XDPVA0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 5 000777 34 XLPAF0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 001004 35 XRLAG0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 8 001010 36 XTUAB0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 10 001020 37 XAACB0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 001032 38 XADCB0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 8 001036 39 XBMDE0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 001046 40 XCIAA0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 8 001052 41 XFPAG0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 001062 42 XDLAJ0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 6 001066 43 XDLBB0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 10 001074 44 XDMEB0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 12 001106 45 XDRAD0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 3 001122 46 XDRJA0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 001125 47 XDUAI0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 7 001131 48 XKWAG0.OBJ 7-DEC-82 4 001140 49 SETUP .BIN 3-MAR-83 26 001144 50 PATCH .BIN 3-MAR-83 22 001176 51 XTECO .BIN 3-MAR-83 16 001224 52 ZRQAB0.BIC 14-JUL-83 71 001244 53 ZRQBA0.BIN 30-JUN-83 20 000256 FREE BLOCKS: 34 .DIR DU1: (CZXD2B0 Field Service Tests 2) ENTRY# FILNAM.EXT DATE LENGTH START VERSION 1 HUDIB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 5 000073 ?.? 2 HDDQA0.SYS 24-MAR-83 4 000100 ?.? 3 HSAAD1.SYS 22-JUN-83 24 000104 ?.? 4 JFPAA1.BIC 14-SEP-82 50 000134 5 JFPBA0.BIC 14-SEP-82 39 000216 6 JDLAA0.BIC 3-MAR-83 19 000265 7 JKDIA0.BIC 3-MAR-83 23 000310 8 JKDBD0.BIC 3-MAR-83 52 000337 9 JKDAD1.BIC 3-MAR-83 28 000423 10 JKDCB0.BIC 3-MAR-83 52 000457 11 JKDDB0.BIC 3-MAR-83 32 000543 12 VM8AF0.BIN 31-MAR-83 15 000603 13 VMSAA0.BIC 3-MAR-83 24 000622 14 VMEMA0.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 000652 15 JKL5A2.BIC 29-JUL-83 94 000672 16 JKDHA0.BIC 3-MAR-83 54 001030 17 VKWAC0.BIC 3-MAR-83 17 001116 18 VDLAB0.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 001137 19 VDVAC0.BIC 3-MAR-83 14 001157 20 VKAFE0.BIN 3-MAR-83 5 001175 21 VKAHA1.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 001202 22 UPD2 .BIN 3-MAR-83 25 001222 FREE BLOCKS: 117 .DIR DU1: (CZXD3B0 Field Service Tests 3) ENTRY# FILNAM.EXT DATE LENGTH START VERSION 1 UPD2 .BIN 3-MAR-83 25 000073 2 HUDIB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 5 000124 ?.? 3 HDDQA0.SYS 24-MAR-83 4 000131 ?.? 4 VDMAA2.BIC 3-MAR-83 31 000135 5 VDMBA1.BIC 3-MAR-83 30 000174 6 VDMCA2.BIC 3-MAR-83 30 000232 7 VDMDA1.BIC 3-MAR-83 27 000270 8 VDMEA2.BIC 3-MAR-83 27 000323 9 VDPVB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 31 000356 10 VDZCB1.BIN 31-MAR-83 12 000415 11 VDZAC0.BIC 7-DEC-82 16 000431 12 VDZBB0.BIC 7-DEC-82 16 000451 13 VAAAA1.BIC 7-DEC-82 13 000471 14 VADAC0.BIC 7-DEC-82 16 000506 15 VAXAA0.BIC 7-DEC-82 16 000526 16 VTSAA0.BIC 14-SEP-82 36 000546 17 VTSBA0.BIC 15-JUL-83 67 000612 18 VTSCA0.BIC 14-SEP-82 73 000715 19 VDZDA0.BIN 31-MAR-83 4 001026 20 HSAAD1.SYS 22-JUN-83 24 001032 ?.? 21 VTSDA0.BIC 14-SEP-82 68 001062 22 VTSEA0.BIC 14-SEP-82 23 001166 FREE BLOCKS: 147 .DIR DU1: (CZXD4B0 Field Service Tests 4) ENTRY# FILNAM.EXT DATE LENGTH START VERSION 1 HUDIB0.SYS 3-MAR-83 5 000073 ?.? 2 UPD2 .BIN 5-NOV-82 26 000100 3 HDDQA0.SYS 24-MAR-83 4 000132 ?.? 4 HSAAD1.SYS 22-JUN-83 24 000136 ?.? 5 ZLPLD0.BIN 4-JUN-82 31 000166 6 ZDUQC0.BIN 3-MAR-83 16 000225 7 ZDURB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 000245 8 ZDUSB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 000265 9 ZDUTB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 000305 10 ZDUVB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 000325 11 ZRLNA2.BIN 3-MAR-83 28 000345 12 ZRLKB2.BIC 3-MAR-83 26 000401 13 ZRLLC0.BIN 3-MAR-83 14 000433 14 ZRLMB0.BIN 3-MAR-83 23 000451 15 ZRLGC0.BIN 3-MAR-83 19 000500 16 ZRLHB0.BIC 3-MAR-83 27 000523 17 ZRLID0.BIN 3-MAR-83 30 000556 18 ZRLJB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 23 000614 19 ZTUUD0.BIN 7-DEC-82 22 000643 20 VKWAC0.BIC 3-MAR-83 17 000671 21 VDRAB0.BIC 3-MAR-83 14 000712 22 VDRCB0.BIN 3-MAR-83 16 000730 23 VDRDB0.BIC 3-MAR-83 15 000750 24 VIBAA2.BIC 3-MAR-83 12 000767 25 VIBBA1.BIC 3-MAR-83 12 001003 27 ZDUUB1.BIC 3-MAR-83 16 001043 28 VRLBA0.BIC 31-MAR-83 32 001063 29 VDRBA0.BIN 7-DEC-82 7 001123 FREE BLOCKS: 218 .DIR DU1: (CZUFB1 User Tests) ENTRY# FILNAM.EXT DATE LENGTH START VERSION 1 MENU .BIC 14-MAR-83 5 000073 2 MENU .CCC 23-OCT-83 18 000100 3 SYSTEM.CCC 30-AUG-83 26 000123 4 ZRQCA2.BIC 2-NOV-83 4 000155 5 HDZSA0.BIC 16-JUN-83 2 000161 6 HUXEA0.BIC 5-JUL-83 2 000163 7 LCPX .BIC 2-NOV-83 77 000165 8 LCPDX .BIC 2-NOV-83 77 000302 9 LCPZX .BIC 2-NOV-83 77 000417 10 LCPZDX.BIC 2-NOV-83 77 000534 11 JKL5A2.BIC 29-JUL-83 94 000651 12 VMSBA1.BIC 2-AUG-83 10 001007 13 VDZAD1.BIC 29-JUL-83 17 001021 14 VDZBC1.BIC 1-AUG-83 17 001042 15 ZRQABD.BIC 19-AUG-83 71 001063 16 HSAAD1.SYS 22-JUN-83 24 001172 ?.? 17 HUDIB0.SYS 26-MAR-81 5 001222 ?.? 18 HELP .TXT 17-MAR-83 10 001227 19 MENU .HLP 25-FEB-83 4 001241 20 HCDQC0.SYS 2-AUG-83 18 001245 ?.? 21 HDDQA0.SYS 24-MAR-83 4 001267 ?.? 22 UPD2 .BIC 5-NOV-82 26 001273 FREE BLOCKS: 76 -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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cd longevity

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 7, 13:17, John Lawson wrote: > On Fri, 7 May 2004, Jay West wrote: > > > This has been discussed on this list a few times before... but I just came > > across a rather detailed article about the topic of longevity of CD, DVD, > > and CDRW media. > Actually, if ya wanna go techno-retro - we found (MGM Studios / Library > of Congress / Filmbond Archival Institute) that the most long-lived medium > for this kind of work is optically encoded data on well-processed Mylar > linear film of some kind. With proper encoding techniques, one can get > bit densities of more than a megabyte per inch - of standard 35MM > sprocketed stock - of course an order of magnitude more using 70MM - and > even more if wider stock is used. So our discussion a few weeks ago about film resolution was relevant after all ;-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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cd longevity

by aek＠spies.com

store as much as possible on multiple hard drives, in multiple systems, utilizing good backup strategies. == How much of your PERQ software is stored this way? So far, I've not been able to find anyone who has a copy of POS or any other PERQ operating system that I can get to try to revive my machine, even though there are several people who 'have it somewhere'

21 years, 11 months

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FS: Franklin Ace 2200 CPU

by stokesp＠earthlink.net

A while ago I retrieved a Franklin Ace 2200 from a neighbour who was throwing it out. Well most of one, anyway. I have the CPU and the joystick. No keyboard, no screen. The computer is clean and while I obviously can't really tell, it appears to boot. I believe it has 128K RAM (8 4164 chips on a riser card and 8 3764s on motherboard). No expansion cards. There was a floppy in each drive; when you power it up it beeps and disks spin and click away for a while like it's loading its DOS. I know next to nothing about this system, and don't want to get into diagnosing anything... Until finding this one I knew them only from cheesy Byte ads when I was 10. I grabbed this one for good obsolete computer karma, so someday when my Atari 800XL craps out I hope there'll be someone who snagged one from a neighbour for a dollar back when neighbours still had those things, and I'll pay him well. Five bucks plus shipping (your choice). It's built like a tank, so the shipping is not going to be free. If you live around Boston MA you can come get it. Respond by direct e-mail: I don't normally read this mailing list, it was suggested to me by another old computer enthusiast. Enjoy and good day, Peter.

21 years, 11 months

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Stiction (was: Atari TT030 install media)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 7, 5:58, Dave Dunfield wrote: > Popped the top off, and immediately discovered that the platters did > not want to turn. [...] > I don't recall why, but "just for kicks", I took a fine cloth, > polished the spot on the platter [...] > Blew out the drive with a bit of air, and put the top back on, and > installed it in a machine to "see what would happen". > > Not suprisingly the drive spun up right away. So, I low-level formatted the drive > and ran a test --- then I got a suprise --- NO ERRORS! I can't remember if I told this story before... I had a machine that ran for a couple of years; never powered off because it was a pain to get the drive to spin again. Well, the inevitable happened, and I had a power cut last August, which outlasted the UPS. This time the usual tricks didn't work, and I ended up taking the drive into the workshop. Even giving it a higher voltage on the 12V supply wouldn't make it start, so with nothing more to lose, off came the top. I discovered I could release the brake by hand, but even so I had to apply 14V (instead of 12V :-)) from a big bench PSU directly to the innards, and flick the disk with my finger to get it to start. However, once started, it would run on 12V, though it wouldn't restart normally if I let it stop. I had to think about how to keep that drive spinning while I took it back to the machine. Don't try this at home ;-) It went something like this: connect a PSU from a PC to the smallest available UPS, and stack the PSU and and the topless drive on the UPS . Start the drive as described above, then whip off the bench power leads and connect the PC PSU before it has a chance to spin down completely. I seem to remember using a paper clip to disable the brake while doing that. Unplug the UPS from the mains and carry the whole lot up to the office, with the drive still spinning. Connect to the computer, cross fingers, and power up the computer. To my surprise and releif, I was able to read almost all of the drive. I only lost a couple of files. Needless to say I replaced the drive after that :-) I've taken the tops off small drives a few times. I don't recommend this, because I may just have been lucky, but as a last resort it's allowed me to rescue the data from a few stuck or damaged drives. Except for the most recent one (I took the wrong screw out and finished the drive off). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 11 months

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Millenium ICE

by aek＠spies.com

> Millenium! If is a yellowish box about 15" w x 8" x 8" and the top opens >up. I have a couple of them, one for 6800 and one for z-80 or 8080 IIRC. I >also have a manual for them. It's a 8 1/2" x 11" three binder about 3 or 4" >thick. I'd like to add it to the scans if you get a chance to scan the manual. I've just put up a user's manual for the Futuredata. And, I'm working through the 64000 manuals I have access to.

21 years, 11 months

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qbus mscp ctlr manuals

by aek＠spies.com

People who have been thinking about building an IDE MSCP Qbus controller may find these two manuals interesting: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dilog/2120-0088_DQ226um_Dec85.pdf http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/webster/SRQD11um_1984.pdf

21 years, 11 months

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cd longevity

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

This has been discussed on this list a few times before... but I just came across a rather detailed article about the topic of longevity of CD, DVD, and CDRW media. I'm thinking the best long term storage solution is... paper printouts. How retro :) http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/05/06/disc.rot.ap/index.html Jay --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

21 years, 11 months

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DEC Pictures

by pat＠computer-refuge.org

On Tuesday 20 April 2004 10:45, Jay West wrote: > Ok folks, the discussion of non-computer hobbies has been fun and > enjoyable, helping to know the folks here and get a better picture. > But lets get back to on-topic stuff! And to kick it off, I'm announcing yet another "feature" I'm working on adding to my website. Right now, it's a set of pictures of some DEC peripherals, I hope to expand it to include some specs on the devices as well, and possibly include things like CPUs or boards. Also, it'd be nice to get some non-B&W pictures, but this is what I've got to start with. I'm trying to fix the fustration that I've had using google to figure out what an RM03, for example, looks like. The URL: http://computer-refuge.org/dec-pics/ Pat -- Purdue University ITAP/RCS --- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

21 years, 11 months

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2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb