On Sun, 18 Apr 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote: I found the culprit: Tracing route to mail.computergarage.org [209.162.216.121] over a maximum of 30 hops: 8 45 ms 29 ms 36 ms core1.Seattle.cw.net [204.70.4.165] 9 40 ms 41 ms 30 ms border4-fddi-0.Seattle.cw.net [204.70.3.147] 10 * easy-street-online.Seattle.cw.net [204.70.55.18] reports: Destination net unreachable. Wacky. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 04/03/99]

Upon the date 12:06 AM 4/18/99 -0700, James Willing said something like: Well, Bruce is pretty much on the money! The 230 first appeared in the 1967 Tektronix catalog and is indeed a device which provides digitised measurements from an oscilloscope. Still appeared in the '71 catalog but I have no cats from '72 to '80 in my library. However, the only scope it is designed to work with is the Type 568. The output is in BCD and goes to data recording devices which can handle such input. The 568/230 combination along with the Type 240 Program Control Unit, Type 241 Programmer, and several other pieces make up early types of data collection systems -the Type S-3110, S-3120 and S-3130 Digital Measurement Systems. The cost of the S-3130 was US$42,500 in the '69 catalog. The Type 230 alone was US$2850 in the '67 catalog (US$3200 in the '69). Punched paper tape is used to store the program to drive the Type 240 and a punch (made by Tally especially for Tek) is used to create same. The reader is made by Remex for Tek. The 241 was setup using diodes which were pushed into clips on a board. Probably steering diodes to connect programming logic together. There is a Disc Memory unit used on the S-3120 and 3130. The description is interesting. To wit: "Disc Memory is an 8-track rotation Disc Memory capable of storing 200 measurements per track . . . when used with the Type 240 or 240/250 Program Units . . . The format for any test is made up of a fixed word length of 96 characters of 4 bits plus parity. . . . The Disc Memory is made by Data Disc, Inc. especially for Tektronix." Cost was US$6600 in the '69 catalog. Whew! Storage was expen$ive with that thing but certainly more economical than true disc systems from IBM, DEC, CD, etc., etc. To quote from the catalog description these Digital Measurement Systems (the S-3110, etc.) were "designed to test IC's, transistors, diodes, circuit modules, circuit boards and sub-assemblies in all segments of the electronic industry." Basically, the programmer would setup the scope to measure a signal and switch that signal into the scope's input which shoved the analog output into the Type 230 which would then squirt the BCD data out from its output connector to the data logger. Yes, this is possibly a piece which could be on topic in one's collection as it originally *could* have been built into a system which tested contemporary computer components/assemblies. To make it useful, you would have to find a Type 568 scope. I'm sure you'd be able to take the BCD output and record it somehow either by finding a BCD data logger or hacking hardware together to have any of your computers read/record the data. Do you recall seeing at Paxton's any other Tek gear which could have been rack mounted with the numbers 240, 241, 250, etc.? The Tek 31 Calculator, which was discussed here a couple of months ago and of which myself and one or two others here have in their collection, was certainly a much smaller, more capable and cheaper programmable data collection controller than the 240 and 241 boxes and their accessories. It came out about 1973 or so. My Tek 31 was part of a Digital Measurement System once used in the IBM Endicott plant which "downsized" in 1984-85. Just put the 20 points on my tab :-) Regards, Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/awa

In case anyone's wondering what everything is in the pictures Mr. Willing took at Paxton's auction, I've identified as many things as I can so that if anyone ever spots one of these in their travels and wonders if its worth their while to pick up, they'll at least have an idea what they're looking at. P009.JPG 17-Apr-1999 22:02 78k

At 09:18 AM 4/18/99, you wrote: No, it was an auction. It appears that he was acquiring right up to the end (much to the landlords dismay I suspect), and many things just did not get the original price markings (or stickers) removed. Heck, the Tek 4006 I picked up still had 'GoodWill' price tags stuck all over it... See my comment above... It will be somewhat odd to not have that resource around. -jim --- jimw(a)computergarage.org The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174