Ok, thanks and good luck with it. I hope to see it in a museum next time that I can go to the UK. Cheers Sergio 2007/10/25, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk>:

My procedure (for which I've been flamed here, I might add) is as follows : 1) Dismantle the machine as far as is sensible. Do a visual inspection for a) Loose phardware that might be causing short-crcuits b) Bent pins, etc that might be doing the same c) Broekn/burnt compoennts 2) Check that mechanical parts, including fans, are free to move correctly 3) Check for ovious shorts on power lines if possible. Maybe remove large cpaacitors and check them separately using a bench supply and series limiting resistor. 4) Check earth (ground) wiring back to the mains plug. Preferably at test current of twice the mains fuse rating. You don't want this wiring to burn out if there is an insulation breakdown, having the chassis becoming live is not good for the machine or anything it's connected to! 5) Do an insulation test (1000V test voltage) on the mains-connected parts (trnasformers, fans, etc) To be fair, I've never had a piece of _old_ computer hardware fail either of those tests. New stuff is another matter! 6) At this point, power up as little as possible. Maybe just the transformer and fans. Check the output voltages from the transformer, leave it on for a bit and see if anything gets hot (may indicate shorted turns in the transofrmer). If you are worried about possile peoblems here, connect a mains-rated light bulu (100W or so rathing) in series with the supply to the machiune. With just the transformer and fans running, the bulb might give a dim glow, but nothing more. If it glows brightly, you've got a short somewhree. 7) Add the rest of the PSU. Check the output voltages on dummy load. 8) Add as little of the logic as possible to get something that will work. Check again. 9) Add some more logic, checking at each stage. -tony

Ooops, yes... In particular record what the cables conneect to what, and which way up connectors go. Make a diagram of where the PCBs go. It may be worth putting numbers on all the PCBs, indicating which slot they came out of if there are several identical PCBs that have to e put back in the same slots (an example of this is the monostable PCBs in an RK11C. They're all the same electrically, but are set to different time delays. Unless you want to have to set the whole thing up from scratch, get them back in the same slots!). In some cases I make a note of the order of nuts, washers, solder tags, etc on things like earthing screws. Needless to say a notebook and pen is always to hand when I take a machine apart. It may be old-fshioned, but I've yet to find a computer that's anywhere near as convenient! I've never found taking photos to be much help. It takes considerable time and trouble to get a picture which actually shows the machine in sufficient detail to be useful in putting it together again. Another thing I do is get a couple of those partitioned boxes sold for storing screwsm etc. When I take a machine apart, I put related bits of fixing hardware i nthe compartments. Maybe the first compartment has the tope cover screws, the nect one has the PCB hold-down clamp screws, and so on. Taht way washers, nuts, etc are kept with the appropraite screws, saving a lot of confusion later. The worst thing I ever did was dismantle the keyboard of an HP9815 withoug doing a keycap diagram. I'd not realised the keys would fall out when I took the PCB off. I then had to send a panicky e-mail message to several known-owners of said machine asking for the layout. -tony

From: "Andreas Holz" This reminds me of a question that's been rattling around in my head for a few years now. Does anyone on this list know what ever became of the University of Oregon's LINC? Everyone I knew in the Neuroscience lab in the early 1980's seems to have died or moved on in the last 25 years :-(. Thanks, Vince Apologies to the list if these eventually show up duplicates, but it's been a over a day since I sent these from my other cctalk member email.

From: "Chuck Guzis" Sure. I know it was still there in 1984, and still in use then. I remember at the time being taken on a tour of all the "retired" gear in the basement, too. Maybe it is down there now. (More likely someone hauled it away since then.) I still fondly remember once it stopped working, and Dave Brumbley debugged the thing and found a bad transistor, replaced it, and within a day or two from start to finish it was working again. Any word on what happened to Dave would be great, too. Vince

For the avoidance of doubt - it's not me selling it! I originally sold it to this guy (mainly to stop it going rusty in my shed/warehouse thing), and he's selling it on... No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.5/1084 - Release Date: 21/10/2007 15:09