30 Sep
2008
30 Sep
'08
10:48 a.m.
I stumbled on a disturbing thing on Ebay. There's a guy who seems to
specialize in taking apart perfectly good classic computer stuff to sell
the pieces. I found him when looking for a VT100. He's selling a naked
CRT that he says was taken from a working VT180. I asked him why. No
answer.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
30 Sep
30 Sep
8:04 p.m.
What's a VT100 worth these days? I might have to unbury my pile of them.
Paul
On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu>wrote:
I stumbled on a disturbing thing on Ebay. There's a guy who seems to
specialize in taking apart perfectly good classic computer stuff to sell
the pieces. I found him when looking for a VT100. He's selling a naked
CRT that he says was taken from a working VT180. I asked him why. No
answer.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
8:26 p.m.
In article <624966d60809302004x1510518cy6a16a60481e6dae at mail.gmail.com>,
"Paul Anderson" <useddec at gmail.com> writes:
What's a VT100 worth these days?
Average selling price on ebay has been anywhere between $50 and $150,
depending on features and cosmetic condition. (That is before
shipping, so add another $50-75 for that.) Most of the VT100s sold
lately have been in poor cosmetic condition. I picked up a couple of
those to use as spares. Ones with the graphics ("retrographics"
board?) sell for higher and of course ones with the built-in computer
(VT103, VT180) sell for better.
I would be interested in one of the VT100s with the graphics options:
models VT105, VT125, VT240, VT241, VT330, VT340, VT340+, retrographics
or other 3rd-party add-in boards providing graphics or other
interesting video processing functions.
Lately I was wondering what it would be like to take a mini ATX PC and
mount it inside a VT100 case, using the VT100 itself as the serial
port console with linux.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
8:34 p.m.
Opps- I forgot the VT180.Also have a RX180 and NEW sortware/docs for them.
Paul
On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 10:26 PM, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
In article <624966d60809302004x1510518cy6a16a60481e6dae at mail.gmail.com>,
"Paul Anderson" <useddec at gmail.com> writes:
What's a VT100 worth these days?
Average selling price on ebay has been anywhere between $50 and $150,
depending on features and cosmetic condition. (That is before
shipping, so add another $50-75 for that.) Most of the VT100s sold
lately have been in poor cosmetic condition. I picked up a couple of
those to use as spares. Ones with the graphics ("retrographics"
board?) sell for higher and of course ones with the built-in computer
(VT103, VT180) sell for better.
I would be interested in one of the VT100s with the graphics options:
models VT105, VT125, VT240, VT241, VT330, VT340, VT340+, retrographics
or other 3rd-party add-in boards providing graphics or other
interesting video processing functions.
Lately I was wondering what it would be like to take a mini ATX PC and
mount it inside a VT100 case, using the VT100 itself as the serial
port console with linux.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
9:30 p.m.
New subject: Building a system inside a VT100 (was Re: choppers)
On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 09:26:37PM -0600, Richard wrote:
I would be interested in one of the VT100s with the
graphics options:
models VT105, VT125, VT240, VT241, VT330, VT340, VT340+, retrographics
or other 3rd-party add-in boards providing graphics or other
interesting video processing functions.
I have some experience with a few of those - I got a VT105 with a MINC
long ago, and I once got a VT241 base in exchange for repairing a pair
of them (bad power switch on the front, and bad EIA receivers inside).
IIRC, the difference between the VT240 and VT241 was which monitor you
hung off of it. A VR201 made it a VT240, and a VR241(?) made it a VT241.
Both of those monitors are compatible with the Rainbow, IIRC, and the
VR201 was quite common since it also came with DECmates and Professional
machines.
I have little experience with newer terminals, but the one I've wanted
for a while is a GiGi (VK100?).
Lately I was wondering what it would be like to take a
mini ATX PC and
mount it inside a VT100 case, using the VT100 itself as the serial
port console with linux.
A modern version of one of my old projects - take a VT103 (which I have),
and stuff a MicroVAX + SCSI interface into it to make it a self-contained
VAX. I suspect some backplane fiddlery would be required, since a BA23
has CD slots at the top for either the CPU interconnect (uVAX-I) or
PMI (uVAX-II). A PDP-11 would be much a much easier fit, I'd say
(but I've already done that, with external disks and the internal
TU58s).
With the mini-ATX board in there, you could run simh and turn your
"VT100" into any one of a number of DEC machines (my choice would be
a PDP-10, but I'd use klh10 and the "Panda Distribution" for that).
I don't know if the PSU in a VT100 has enough spare amps for an
internal PC, but the VT103 should, especially if you use a laptop
hard disk and a processor that uses less than 36W - i.e., not a P4).
What would make it really handy is if you got a motherboard that
could be set up for serial console - it's possible with some, but I
don't know if any Mini-ATX (or other small format) boards can do it.
Worst case, I suppose, is that it boots up headless and you know it's
up when the login prompt shows up on the screen.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 1-Oct-2008 at 03:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -76.0 F (-60.0 C) Windchill -117.3 F (-83.0 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 13.5 kts Grid 49 Barometer 681.1 mb (10587 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
11:12 p.m.
New subject: Building a system inside a VT100 (was Re: choppers)
In article <20081001043053.GB1961 at usap.gov>,
Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at usap.gov> writes:
I have little experience with newer terminals, but the
one I've wanted
for a while is a GiGi (VK100?).
I had seen one of these when it first came out. I think we got a poor
demo at the time from what I read of the specifications now.
I picked up a couple of these from ebay recently. Lately I've been
reorganizing my collection in my basement and I now have a room full
of quite a bit of graphics hardware:
+----------+ +----------+
|Rack 1 | |Rack 2 |
| | | |
+----------+ +----------+
+-++---+
|5|| 6 |
+---+ +-++---+ +---+
Rack| Rack|
|3 | |4 |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+---+ +---+
Rack 1: SGI Rack 1
2 Indigo^2 (Teal and Purple)
2 Indigo
3 Octane
3 Octane
Rack 2: SGI Rack 2
2 O2, 1 Indy
3 Octane
3 Octane
3 Octane
Rack 3: Work Rack
Commodore 64, Apple ][e
Tektronix 4051
Mac Classic, HP 2645A terminal
VT220, HP 2640B terminal
VT320, Beehive terminal
Rack 4: Graphics Decades Rack
3 HP 1351A graphics generators, 1 DEC GIGI terminal
Control Data 110 Microcomputer System (PLATO terminal)
Terak Graphics Workstation
SGI Personal Iris 4D/35, CDC Cyber 910, SGI Personal Iris 4D/20
5 - Tektronix 4010 terminal
6 - Tektronix 4114 terminal
Worst case, I suppose, is that it boots up headless
and you know it's
up when the login prompt shows up on the screen.
You can always put the PC connectors on the back and plug in a second
keyboard, second monitor and a mouse into your "VT100". :-)
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
10:54 p.m.
In article <E1KksMH-0005yO-MV at shell.xmission.com>,
Richard <legalize at xmission.com> writes:
I would be interested in one of the VT100s with the
graphics options:
models VT105, VT125, VT240, VT241, VT330, VT340, VT340+, retrographics
or other 3rd-party add-in boards providing graphics or other
interesting video processing functions.
I realize this could be read as saying I think the VT2xx/VT3xx are
models of VT100. Rest assured, this is not the case :-).
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
8:29 p.m.
Paul Anderson wrote:
A: Yes I will buy ONE.
What's a VT100 worth these days? I might have to
unbury my pile of them.
Paul
On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 12:48 PM, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu>wrote:
I stumbled on a disturbing thing on Ebay.
There's a guy who seems to
specialize in taking apart perfectly good classic computer stuff to sell
the pieces. I found him when looking for a VT100. He's selling a naked
CRT that he says was taken from a working VT180. I asked him why. No
answer.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
8:17 p.m.
In article <Pine.GSO.4.55.0809301046390.26480 at helios.cs.csubak.edu>,
David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> writes:
I stumbled on a disturbing thing on Ebay. There's
a guy who seems to
specialize in taking apart perfectly good classic computer stuff to sell
the pieces. I found him when looking for a VT100. He's selling a naked
CRT that he says was taken from a working VT180. I asked him why. No
answer.
You're talking about seller "md9ent", aka "Drake's Retro Video
Game
Shop".
I saw that when he first listed it some time ago. I have no idea why
he would break a VT180 down into parts, but this behavior of breaking
down machines into parts and selling the parts has been going on for
as long as there have been computers. Its easier to ship parts then
entire units and some people think they'll make more from the sum of
the sold parts than they would make from selling the entire unit.
For instance, when was the last time you saw a SGI Challenge, Crimson
or Onyx deskside sold on ebay? Instead you see lots of people
offering individual boards, memory sticks, drive sleds, and power
supplies. Its easier and cheaper to ship out parts than it is to
arrange freight shipping for one of these large beer keg sized
computers (keg laying down, of course).
At any rate, what you observe may be "disturbing" to you, but it has
been going on for what I would guess is many years.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
5695
days inactive
5696
days old
8 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
ethan.dicks＠usap.gov -
legalize＠xmission.com -
useddec＠gmail.com