Barry Watzman <Watzman at neo.rr.com> wrote: The H-9 was flakey even when it was introduced. It was not a reliable product, and will probably be difficult to get working. Probably bad ICs or, worse, bad IC sockets. Do you have a complete H-8 (or several)? By complete, I mean chassis & CPU, reasonable memory, disk controller, serial I/O card and the "CP/M Card" (a tiny small card, only about 3 inches wide, that allows the computer to run CP/M ... I think that the original name was "extended configuration card" or something like that). I got two H8's and one dual disk drive box. There are two CPU cards, three serial/cassette cards, a parallel I/O card, one disk controller card, four 16K memory cards, and about 50 floppies full of software. Nothing that looks like the CP/M cards though. Also, an H19 terminal and H89 computer plus the Selectric. I got the H19 working and am currently bringing up the H8 power supplies. The Selectric is going to be the hardest to restore though. Bob

There's an NCR 399 computer on ebay I was thinking of bidding on (I like desk sized computers!). Does anyone know anything about them? It's item number: 290105191721. Thanks, Bob

On Tue, 2007-04-17 at 13:13 -0400, Barry Watzman wrote: On Navy ships, a large chunk of zinc is connected to the steel hull at some point. Then, when oxidation, and other electro-chemical degradation takes place, this "sacrificial anode" is where essentially all the corrosion takes place. Every now and then, the remnants of the zinc are removed, and a new block is attached. (It's VERY easy and cheap to replace a block of zinc - repairing a thinning, corroding hull is quite another matter.) Somehow, I think the header pins on the H-9 were acting as sacrificial anodes in that machine. You're probably in a MUCH better position to answer this than I am. An H-9 was the first terminal I OWNED to use with my IMSAI 8080. Previously, I had borrowed a Teletype ASR-33, with the punch and all... whatever the exact model is. Anyway, after about two or three days, I would literally have to take the damned thing apart, and clean off all the headers (with long pins) by which all the various boards were interconnected. It took about an hour to do reliably, and would provide a solid, guaranteed 24 hours of uninterrupted use. But, usually by about 48 hours, a few "flaky bits" would start showing up on the screen. I never noticed data transmission being compromised, but, as time went by, I would have to keep more and more of what SHOULD have been on the screen in the organic neural network I carry around with me at all times for just such mechanical failures. After a while, the effort of trying to read the screen, and fill in the flaky bits, would convince me to take it apart again, and start over. I was *WAY* poor at the time, and could not afford to eat the difference and replace it. I ALMOST soldered in the various boards several times, but never did, for fear that something ELSE, like the sockets, was or were involved. When I moved back to the mainland, I was more than happy to sell it cheaply. I had almost forgotten all the heartache... Thanks for the reminder. <Grin> I agree, but that option wasn't available in 1977.... Peace, Warren E. Wolfe wizard at voyager.net