12 May
1998
12 May
'98
5:01 a.m.
Are there any students besides Derek on the list?
Oh, what the heck. I'm a third-year Russian major at Grinnell College.
And, just to keep this minimally on-topic, I have a minor Kaypro
problem. My Kaypro 4 had one of its original floppy drives replaced with
a half-height drive before I got it, leaving a gaping hole in the front.
I wasn't thrilled about this even when the drive worked, but it's stopped
working, so I want to get rid of it. Anybody have a source for
full-height double-sided 5-1/4" floppy drives?
Thanks,
--
Ben Coakley http://www.math.grin.edu/~coakley coakley(a)ac.grin.edu
Station Manager, KDIC 88.5 FM CBEL: Xavier OH
Wow, this is global. -Mtn Goats
12 May
12 May
7:22 a.m.
New subject: strange z-80 / CP/M box
Our student IEEE group saved the following from a dumpster.
a Paradynamics PRONTO computer. This thing is the size of
a small beige filing cabinet and holds 2 8 inch drives.
the guy we got it from said it had 48K of RAM and 2 10 Meg
hard drives. It has a sticker for a place called Balcones
Computers in Austin which is where this probably came from.
a quick check showed that it has a 1200 baud hayes s-100
buss modem in it and we have 1 vt-100 compatible terminal
for it.
does anyone remember seeing one of these beasts? a lot of the
disks have suffered bit rot, but I think we do have 1 working
boot disk.
E-MAIL privately (if you think this is off topic) becase I
need to know how long to leave the bootdisk in. Is it
necessary ie: is it like DOS but everything is an external
command and requires the floppy.
thx in advane.
I think we also acquired an IBM 5100.
This animal was without docs, but it boots to basic and has
a small mono screen and twin 8 inch drives. All the logic is
in one housing with the screen. I know someone was asking
around about such a computer recently.
*********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6
As the astronomers unanimously teach, the circuit of the
whole earth, which to us seems endless, compared with the
greatness of the universe has the likeness of a mere point.
--Ammianus Marcellinius ( 330-395 AD)
the last major Roman historian in "The Chronicle of Events"
***** haleyk(a)okstate.edu ***** ***** ***** ends.
9:46 a.m.
New subject: strange z-80 / CP/M box
On Tue, 12 May 1998, K.S. (Tall Texan) Haley wrote:
Our student IEEE group saved the following from a
dumpster.
a Paradynamics PRONTO computer. This thing is the size of
a small beige filing cabinet and holds 2 8 inch drives.
the guy we got it from said it had 48K of RAM and 2 10 Meg
hard drives. It has a sticker for a place called Balcones
Computers in Austin which is where this probably came from.
Paradynamics was well known in the S-100 heyday for selling rather
innovative and high priced main frames (boxes) in which to house
them. They had some nice features, but could also be a real b***h
for access. Balcones did some contract operating system software
work for Xerox, amongst others. But, I cannot say that I am familiar
with the machine that you describe.
It would probably be worth seeing if you can identify the maker of
the S-100 cards in it. Most makers were not bashful about putting
their names on their products, though some of the busy ones posed a
challenge in finding it because the chip density was so high.
a quick check showed that it has a 1200 baud hayes
s-100
buss modem in it and we have 1 vt-100 compatible terminal
for it.
does anyone remember seeing one of these beasts? a lot of the
disks have suffered bit rot, but I think we do have 1 working
boot disk.
E-MAIL privately (if you think this is off topic) becase I
need to know how long to leave the bootdisk in. Is it
necessary ie: is it like DOS but everything is an external
command and requires the floppy.
Such commands as DIR(ectory), TYPE, ERA(se) are internal commands.
However, on completion the o/s normally looks for the CCP (Command
Control Processor) and may hang if the disk is not present.
thx in advane.
I think we also acquired an IBM 5100.
This animal was without docs, but it boots to basic and has
a small mono screen and twin 8 inch drives. All the logic is
in one housing with the screen. I know someone was asking
around about such a computer recently.
*********1*********2*********3*********4*********5*********6
As the astronomers unanimously teach, the circuit of the
whole earth, which to us seems endless, compared with the
greatness of the universe has the likeness of a mere point.
--Ammianus Marcellinius ( 330-395 AD)
the last major Roman historian in "The Chronicle of Events"
***** haleyk(a)okstate.edu ***** ***** ***** ends.
- don
donm(a)cts.com
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Don Maslin - Keeper of the Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives
Chairman, Dina-SIG of the San Diego Computer Society
Clinging tenaciously to the trailing edge of technology.
Sysop - Elephant's Graveyard (CP/M) - 619-454-8412
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
see old system support at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj
visit the "Unofficial" CP/M Weg site at http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm
with Mirror at http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cfs/cpm
12:24 p.m.
New subject: strange z-80 / CP/M box
Is the case white?
Is there a red power switch surrounded by black plastic at the lower
right corner on the front?
Do the drives close using levers which twist 90 degrees?
Is the keyboard also built into the case?
Does the screen blink off and on when the drives are being accessed?
Weighs as much as a pallette of bricks?
If so, I believe you have a 5120 (or possibly a 5110). These were
produced around 1979-1980 just prior to the introduction of the PC.
They would run either BASIC or APL, and could be equipped with an
external disk drive module which was the size of a small filing cabinet,
rolled on casters, and housed two additional 8" drives. A wide carriage
dot matrix printer was also available. If I remember correctly there
are three connectors on the back of the case of the computer in a
triangular shape, with a threaded hole for a bolt in the middle. This
is where the printer & drive unit connected.
You might want to look for a silver tag on the back of the machine; I
always thought IBM was pretty adament about putting a model number on
anything they produced, but I don't remember there being any tags on the
front of the machine I worked on years ago.
Hope this helps! If you find out what you have, I would be interested
in knowing the final outcome; I have heard others refer to a machine
which fits this description as a "Datamaster", but have no idea what
would make it different from a 5110/5120.
K.S. (Tall Texan) Haley wrote:
I think we also acquired an IBM 5100.
This animal was without docs, but it boots to basic
and has
a small mono screen and twin 8 inch drives. All the
logic is
in one housing with the screen. I know someone was asking
around about such a computer recently.
10:46 a.m.
Ben,
In the past I've come across some original FH Tandon drives, including a
couple of NIB ones. I sold all the ones that I had to one of the other
list members, but I can probably find some used ones from IBM PCs. Will
they work?
Joe
At 12:01 PM 5/12/98 -0500, you wrote:
Are there any
students besides Derek on the list?
Oh, what the heck. I'm a third-year Russian major at Grinnell College.
And, just to keep this minimally on-topic, I have a minor Kaypro
problem. My Kaypro 4 had one of its original floppy drives replaced with
a half-height drive before I got it, leaving a gaping hole in the front.
I wasn't thrilled about this even when the drive worked, but it's stopped
working, so I want to get rid of it. Anybody have a source for
full-height double-sided 5-1/4" floppy drives?
Thanks,
--
Ben Coakley http://www.math.grin.edu/~coakley coakley(a)ac.grin.edu
Station Manager, KDIC 88.5 FM CBEL: Xavier OH
Wow, this is global. -Mtn Goats
11:13 a.m.
On Tue, 12 May 1998, Joe wrote:
Ben,
In the past I've come across some original FH Tandon drives, including a
couple of NIB ones. I sold all the ones that I had to one of the other
list members, but I can probably find some used ones from IBM PCs. Will
they work?
Yes!
- don
Joe
At 12:01 PM 5/12/98 -0500, you wrote:
donm(a)cts.com
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Don Maslin - Keeper of the Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives
Chairman, Dina-SIG of the San Diego Computer Society
Clinging tenaciously to the trailing edge of technology.
Sysop - Elephant's Graveyard (CP/M) - 619-454-8412
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
see old system support at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj
visit the "Unofficial" CP/M Weg site at http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm
with Mirror at http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cfs/cpm
Are there
any students besides Derek on the list?
Oh, what the heck. I'm a third-year Russian major at Grinnell College.
And, just to keep this minimally on-topic, I have a minor Kaypro
problem. My Kaypro 4 had one of its original floppy drives replaced with
a half-height drive before I got it, leaving a gaping hole in the front.
I wasn't thrilled about this even when the drive worked, but it's stopped
working, so I want to get rid of it. Anybody have a source for
full-height double-sided 5-1/4" floppy drives?
Thanks,
--
Ben Coakley http://www.math.grin.edu/~coakley coakley(a)ac.grin.edu
Station Manager, KDIC 88.5 FM CBEL: Xavier OH
Wow, this is global. -Mtn Goats
9722
days inactive
9722
days old
5 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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COAKLEY＠AC.GRIN.EDU -
donm＠cts.com -
gzozman＠escape.ca -
haleyk＠okstate.edu -
rigdonj＠intellistar.net