3 Feb
2004
3 Feb
'04
1:24 p.m.
I thought for sure I'd left my computer collecting days far behind when my interest
in amateur radio re-flared a few years back. Then I came across one heck of a piece of
history that I could not resist.
Specifically: An original Compaq 'Luggable.' Green-screen, 8-bit motherboard, two
full-height 360K FDD's, the works. Found at a local thrift store, in pretty good shape
(if a bit dirty) and still functional, for the stunning price of $18 with tax.
<sigh> I couldn't say no. The sight of the thing sitting on the floor,
gathering dust and negligent kicks from other customers, was too much. God only knows what
I'm going to do with it... Although I do have a nice IBM 8-bit MFM drive controller
I'm going to stick in there, along with a hard drive.
BTW, the thing had a fully-loaded AST SixPack Plus board in it. If this requires any
drivers to work, I would appreciate knowing about it (and knowing where to find said
drivers).
Thanks much.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal
ports?"
3 Feb
3 Feb
1:31 p.m.
I thought for sure I'd left my computer
collecting days far
behind when my interest in amateur radio re-flared a few years back.
Then I came across one heck of a piece of history that I could not resist.
Bruce, you have my condolences! Be smart, work at resisting, just toss it
on eBay. And NO, I DO NOT want it!
Zane
3:46 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Zane H. Healy wrote:
Why do people go crazy over these things? They're just as common as
Commodore 64's but far less interesting.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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I thought for
sure I'd left my computer collecting days far
behind when my interest in amateur radio re-flared a few years back.
Then I came across one heck of a piece of history that I could not resist.
Bruce, you have my condolences! Be smart, work at resisting, just toss it
on eBay. And NO, I DO NOT want it!
3:54 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Zane H. Healy wrote:
Why do people go crazy over these things? They're just as common as
Commodore 64's but far less interesting.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
I totally agree, and don't forget you can fit a C64, C1542, cables, and a
bunch of carts and floppies in a lot less space. Plus the C64 has colour
;^)
Zane
I
thought for sure I'd left my computer collecting days far
behind when my interest in amateur radio re-flared a few years back.
Then I came across one heck of a piece of history that I could not resist.
Bruce, you have my condolences! Be smart, work at resisting, just toss it
on eBay. And NO, I DO NOT want it! 
4:25 p.m.
[Compaq luggable]
> Why do people go crazy over these things?
They're just as common as
> Commodore 64's but far less interesting.
On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Zane H. Healy
wrote:
I totally agree, and don't forget you can fit a
C64, C1542, cables, and a
bunch of carts and floppies in a lot less space. Plus the C64 has colour
;^)
You can fit a LOT in one of them!
At Comdex, the late night security people would leave the computers alone,
but they stole our beer, our cheese and crackers, our cookies, etc.
So,... We made a big lunchbox out of a Compaq. Our food was safe, hidden
in it.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
8:21 p.m.
At Comdex, the late night security people would leave
the computers alone,
but they stole our beer, our cheese and crackers, our cookies, etc.
So,... We made a big lunchbox out of a Compaq. Our food was safe, hidden
in it.
That reminds me of a project that came to nothing.
Back in the late 80's / early 90's, Trace sold a 5.25" floppy disk
autoloader. A customer thought that it looked like a coffee maker. I thought
it would be a marvellous idea to have such a beast as a display item, but
the mechanical work involved proved to be too much
:-(
Nico
1:46 p.m.
Hi Bruce,
I used to have a Six Pack a LONG time ago and IIRC there wheren't
"drivers" for it but it did have some utility programs. There was a RAM
disk program, pair of utilites to set the real time clock and to read it
and set the software clock, and a print buffer program. There were probably
more but that's the ones that I remember. I don't know if I still have the
programs but I'll look.
Joe
At 04:24 PM 2/3/04 -0800, you wrote:
I thought for sure I'd left my computer collecting
days far behind when
my interest in amateur radio re-flared a few years back. Then I
came across
one heck of a piece of history that I could not resist.
Specifically: An original Compaq 'Luggable.' Green-screen, 8-bit
motherboard, two full-height 360K FDD's, the works. Found at a local thrift
store, in pretty good shape (if a bit dirty) and still functional, for the
stunning price of $18 with tax.
<sigh> I couldn't say no. The sight of the thing sitting on the floor,
gathering dust and negligent kicks from other customers, was too much. God
only knows what I'm going to do with it... Although I do have a nice IBM
8-bit MFM drive controller I'm going to stick in there, along with a hard
drive.
BTW, the thing had a fully-loaded AST SixPack Plus board in it. If this
requires
any drivers to work, I would appreciate knowing about it (and
knowing where to find said drivers).
Thanks much.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with
surreal ports?"
2:21 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Joe R. wrote:
I used to have a Six Pack a LONG time ago and IIRC
there wheren't
"drivers" for it but it did have some utility programs. There was a RAM
disk program, pair of utilites to set the real time clock and to read it
and set the software clock, and a print buffer program. There were probably
more but that's the ones that I remember. I don't know if I still have the
programs but I'll look.
The print buffer and ramdisk software were generic to ANY memory, and were
provided youst to be able to call the board a "SIX FUNCTION!" board,
instead of "four function".
There were two essential programs needed for the [8 bit] AST Six Pack:
ASTCLOCK.COM reads the clock on the Six Pack and conveys the clock
calendar info to the OS. Otherwise, DOS thinks that it is January 1,
1980, unless you manually enter a date and/or time.
SETCLOCK.COM permits setting the time in the clock calendar of the Six
Pack. 'course, if you are real quick in changing batteries BEFORE they go
dead, then you could simply keep the time running.
There was also an ASTCLOCK.C, and at least one or two of the assembly
language books provided info on how to roll your own.
They should be relatively easy to find on the web, if you look for
ASTCLOCK.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
2:25 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Bruce Lane wrote:
I thought for sure I'd left my computer
collecting days far behind
when my interest in amateur radio re-flared a few years back. Then I
came across one heck of a piece of history that I could not resist.
... you try to leave, and they suck you back in, ...
Specifically: An original Compaq 'Luggable.'
Green-screen, 8-bit
motherboard, two full-height 360K FDD's, the works. Found at a local
thrift store, in pretty good shape (if a bit dirty) and still
functional, for the stunning price of $18 with tax.
That's all that it takes to get you back?
<sigh> I couldn't say no. The sight of the
thing sitting on the
floor, gathering dust and negligent kicks from other customers, was too
much. God only knows what I'm going to do with it... Although I do have
a nice IBM 8-bit MFM drive controller I'm going to stick in there, along
with a hard drive.
Careful of the power rating. Mine was NOT happy with a 4096.
BTW, the thing had a fully-loaded AST SixPack Plus
board in it. If
this requires any drivers to work, I would appreciate knowing about it
(and knowing where to find said drivers).
ASTCLOCK.COM, SETCLOCK.COM
Google?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
2:50 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Bruce Lane wrote:
I thought for sure I'd left my computer
collecting days far
behind when my interest in amateur radio re-flared a few years
back. Then I came across one heck of a piece of history that I
could not resist.
Specifically: An original Compaq 'Luggable.' Green-screen,
8-bit motherboard, two full-height 360K FDD's, the works. Found
at a local thrift store, in pretty good shape (if a bit dirty)
and still functional, for the stunning price of $18 with tax.
<sigh> I couldn't say no. The sight of the thing sitting
on the floor, gathering dust and negligent kicks from other
customers, was too much. God only knows what I'm going to do
with it... Although I do have a nice IBM 8-bit MFM drive
controller I'm going to stick in there, along with a hard drive.
BTW, the thing had a fully-loaded AST SixPack Plus board in
it. If this requires any drivers to work, I would appreciate
knowing about it (and knowing where to find said drivers).
Thanks much.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped
with surreal ports?"
Bruce, I have attached a file AST-6PAK.ZIP - which the rest of the
folks won't see - that contains text and ascii drawings of the
boards, and tables of switch settings. Hope it is useful to you.
- don
4:12 p.m.
BTW, the thing had a fully-loaded AST SixPack Plus
board in it. If
this requires any drivers to work, I would appreciate knowing about it
(and knowing where to find said drivers).
IIRC, the 'Sixpack' board has 6 functions (hence the name), but 2 of them
are really software (print spooler and ? ). The 'hardware' ones are :
Memory (up to the full 640K), serial port, parallel port, and real time
clock. Only the clock needs a driver, the memory and ports are recognised
by the normal ROM BIOS.
-tony
4 Feb
4 Feb
12:14 a.m.
At 03:12 AM 2/4/04 +0000, you wrote:
RAMdisk.
The 'hardware' ones are :
BTW, the
thing had a fully-loaded AST SixPack Plus board in it. If
this requires any drivers to work, I would appreciate knowing about it
(and knowing where to find said drivers).
IIRC, the 'Sixpack' board has 6 functions (hence the name), but 2 of them
are really software (print spooler and ? ). Memory (up to the full 640K), serial port, parallel
port, and real time
clock. Only the clock needs a driver, the memory and ports are recognised
by the normal ROM BIOS.
No driver for the clock, just two small programs. One to set the RT clock
and another to read it and set the softare clock. I THINK there were some
other programs included but I can't remember what they were.
Joe
-tony
7455
days inactive
7456
days old
11 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
donm＠cts.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
vcf＠siconic.com