19 May
2004
19 May
'04
4:05 a.m.
In a message dated Tue, 18 May 2004 21:41:13 -0700 (PDT)
Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> writes:
$20 each is fair. A little less ($10-$15) if they are in
crap condition,
a little more ($25) if they are in great condition.
No offense Sellam, but I would say that they are worth about double those figures, for
east coast values. I recently sold one in good condition for about $50 or $60 I think.
Best, David, classiccomputing.com
19 May
19 May
4:15 a.m.
I haven't done my homework yet, but I'm sure someone else already knows the
answer.
Can these things easily interface to a PDP-11? I don't ever remember seeing
one in
conjunction with any DEC systems. I think they're neat looking, and
wouldn't mind
having one.
Ashley
----- Original Message -----
From: <MTPro(a)aol.com>
To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 9:05 AM
Subject: Re: Lear Siegler ADM3 terminals
In a message dated Tue, 18 May 2004 21:41:13 -0700
(PDT)
Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> writes:
figures,
for east coast values. I recently sold one in good condition for
about $50 or $60 I think. Best, David, classiccomputing.com
$20 each is fair. A little less ($10-$15) if they are in
crap condition,
a little more ($25) if they are in great condition.
No offense Sellam, but I would say that they are worth about double those 
4:50 a.m.
On Wed, 19 May 2004, Ashley Carder wrote:
I haven't done my homework yet, but I'm sure
someone else already
knows the answer. Can these things easily interface to a PDP-11?
Well, that
probably depends on the system. I have two ADM3's here,
and they were both used with PDP-11's, and those systems had regular
(EIA) interfaces. If your system has 20mA current loop, the ADM3
might need another line interface, if they had that...
--f
12:58 p.m.
On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 09:15:30AM -0400, Ashley Carder wrote:
I haven't done my homework yet, but I'm sure
someone else already knows the
answer.
Can these things easily interface to a PDP-11? I don't ever remember seeing
one in conjunction with any DEC systems. I think they're neat looking, and
wouldn't mind having one.
That depends on which DEC world you circulated in... there's been a termcap
entry for the ADM 3A in UNIX for as far back as my experience goes.
I don't recall seeing them at all in non-university or non-UNIX settings,
though. DEC terminals cost enough that in the notoriously cheap educational
market, people gave serious consideration to other forms of terminals (I
have reciepts from the early-to-mid-1980s for VT100s at around $1,700 each,
which is why Software Results had a mix of DEC terminals and CiTOH terminals,
'101's and '101e's).
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 19-May-2004 21:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -66.4 F (-54.7 C) Windchill -153.1 F (-102.8 C)
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Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
3:47 p.m.
Can these
things easily interface to a PDP-11? I don't ever remember seeing
one in conjunction with any DEC systems. I think they're neat looking, and
wouldn't mind having one.
That depends on which DEC world you circulated in... there's been a termcap
entry for the ADM 3A in UNIX for as far back as my experience goes. 
7:38 p.m.
ADM3 and ADM3a's were used in all sorts of installatins because they
were CHEAP. My first use of one was a "big" Nova system.
(Amusing anecdote: we had all ADM3's (upper-case only), did all our
editing in NSPEED, DG's version of teco. One day we got a software
upgrade or something, had to edit files that came with, and couldn't!
nspeed commands basically stopped working... took many hours to figure
out that the files contained lower case characters and of course all of
our nspeed commands were issued in UPPER CASE (the adm3 displaying
abcdefghi... as ABCDEFGHI...)
On Wed, 2004-05-19 at 14:58, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 09:15:30AM -0400, Ashley
Carder wrote:
I haven't done my homework yet, but I'm
sure someone else already knows the
answer.
Can these things easily interface to a PDP-11? I don't ever remember seeing
one in conjunction with any DEC systems. I think they're neat looking, and
wouldn't mind having one.
That depends on which DEC world you circulated in... there's been a termcap
entry for the ADM 3A in UNIX for as far back as my experience goes.
I don't recall seeing them at all in non-university or non-UNIX settings,
though. DEC terminals cost enough that in the notoriously cheap educational
market, people gave serious consideration to other forms of terminals (I
have reciepts from the early-to-mid-1980s for VT100s at around $1,700 each,
which is why Software Results had a mix of DEC terminals and CiTOH terminals,
'101's and '101e's).
-ethan 
2:21 p.m.
[...]
Can these things easily interface to a PDP-11? I
don't ever remember seeing
There are 2 sides to this, hardware and software. The hardware is no
problem. I assume an ADM3 has a standard RS232 port, so all you need is a
null modem cable to link it to the serial port on your PDP11.
The software side could be more of a problem. For software that doesn't
use any form of full-screen mode, cursor addressing, or anything like
that -- software that will run with an ASR33 -- then there's no problem.
But things like the full screen editor use the VT100 escape sequences,
and they're pretty much hard-coded (DEC assumed you'd use one of their
terminals ;-)). So setting it up for anything else is pretty much impossible.
-tony
5:43 a.m.
On Wed, 19 May 2004 MTPro(a)aol.com wrote:
In a message dated Tue, 18 May 2004 21:41:13 -0700
(PDT)
Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> writes:
Hi David.
Yours is only one price point. Some folks have an idea that these things
are scarce, which they aren't. Also, items in bulk quantity, as in this
case, are always discounted. For an individual unit, I'd be slightly (but
only slightly) inclined to go with the higher value as a suggested sale
price.
I think the prices I've posted reflect reality, though the owner is
welcome to ask more if he wants of course.
--
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 ]
$20 each is fair. A little less ($10-$15) if they are in
crap condition,
a little more ($25) if they are in great condition.
No offense Sellam, but I would say that they are worth about double
those figures, for east coast values. I recently sold one in good
condition for about $50 or $60 I think. Best, David,
classiccomputing.com 
6:26 a.m.
On Wed, 19 May 2004, John Allain wrote:
I'm not Sellam, but I've seen at least a dozen go through Purdue's salvage
op in the past two years or so. Not all were "usable" state, but quite a
few were. BTW, these weren't just ADM3's, they were also "ADM"s (no
number) and ADM5's and ADM3+s. I've got two or three of them between a
friend and me.
And of course, "not usable" means "could be repaired", but since
there
were plenty of working units available, and I had better thing to do with
my time (like classwork, my paying job, and working on gathering a
VAX/Micro-PDP11 collection), I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking
thinking about fixing any.
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
Some folks
have an idea that these things are scarce,
which they aren't.
Just as a supporting argument you might want to list two or
three places where a person could go and get one of these. 
6:51 a.m.
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Wed, 19 May 2004, John Allain wrote:
I'm not Sellam, but I've seen at least a dozen go through Purdue's salvage
op in the past two years or so. Not all were "usable" state, but quite a
few were. BTW, these weren't just ADM3's, they were also "ADM"s (no
number) and ADM5's and ADM3+s. I've got two or three of them between a
friend and me.
Just to toss in another factor, being rare or uncommon doesn't
necessarily affect the price. A prime example is the Altair where IIRC
some 25000 or so were made. They are worth far more than something like
the Lobo Drives computer where only about 5000 were made.
Some
folks have an idea that these things are scarce,
which they aren't.
Just as a supporting argument you might want to list two or
three places where a person could go and get one of these. 
7:31 a.m.
Some folks
have an idea that these things are scarce,
which they aren't.
Just as a supporting argument you might want to list two or
three places where a person could go and get one of these.
9:01 a.m.
On Wed, 19 May 2004, John Allain wrote:
eBay, VCM, my warehouse ;)
--
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 ]
Some folks
have an idea that these things are scarce,
which they aren't.
Just as a supporting argument you might want to list two or
three places where a person could go and get one of these. 
7:03 p.m.
>> Some folks have an idea that these things are
scarce,
>> which they aren't.
> Just as a supporting argument you might want to
list two or
> three places where a person could go and get one of these.
eBay, VCM, my warehouse ;)
didn't see one there, didn't see one there, not for sale at present.
I still believe that they are scarce, here in 2004 where we live,
but agree with your price points 100%.
John A.
20 May
20 May
5:36 a.m.
On Thu, 20 May 2004, John Allain wrote:
Well, there are currently 10-12 available on the list. What more evidence
do you need? ;)
--
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 ]
>> Some
folks have an idea that these things are scarce,
>> which they aren't.
> Just as a supporting argument you might want
to list two or
> three places where a person could go and get one of these.
eBay, VCM, my warehouse ;)
didn't see one there, didn't see one there, not for sale at present.
I still believe that they are scarce, here in 2004 where we live,
but agree with your price points 100%. 
19 May
19 May
9:32 a.m.
$20 each is
fair. A little less ($10-$15) if they are in
I recently sold one in good condition
for about $50 or $60
7374
days inactive
7375
days old
15 comments
13 participants
participants (13)
-
allain＠panix.com -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
dickset＠amanda.spole.gov -
marvin＠rain.org -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
MTPro＠aol.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
spectre＠floodgap.com -
tomj＠wps.com -
vcf＠siconic.com -
wacarder＠usit.net -
waltje＠pdp11.nl -
wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net