3 Oct
2007
3 Oct
'07
11:11 p.m.
My view is that if you have spent little or nothing on the computer. Then a few pounds on
a cable is a good investment. If you do not have experience in making up cables then
don't waste time learning for a small number.
Rod
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf
Of Pete Edwards
Sent: 03 October 2007 14:34
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Setting up a VAXstation
There's plenty of telephone kit in the UK that does use RJ11, look on answering
machines and especially external modems - they nearly always came with an RJ11-BT adaptor
cable.
A lot of modern laptop internal modems seem to have RJ11 sockets too.
--
Pete Edwards
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future" - Niels
Bohr
here, folks. I'm not going to spend ?20 or
?30 on getting or making
a cable for a 99p computer!
Ah, that's right - you're in the UK so the telephone cables won't be
the same. Actually, you _might_ be able to take an Ethernet cable,
file off the clip and file both sides to make it fit. If you can keep
the pins centered properly after filing, it should work.
-Ian
4 Oct
4 Oct
12:05 p.m.
My view is that if you have spent little or nothing on the computer. Then=
a few pounds on a cable is a good investment. If you do not have experie=
This is basically my view. As I said last night, don;t think of it as
'The cable cost 20 times as much as the rest of the computer' but as
'I've got a very nice machine here and it only cost me \pounds 21.00'
nce in making up cables then don't waste time
learning for a small number.
I'm not so sure about that. Very often in setting up a vintage computer
you'll need a special cable (RS232 serial cables being an obvious
example, there are all sorts of odd pin-swaps you need for some
machines...), and it makes a lot of sense to be abe to make it up. You
can't always buy the right cable off-the-shelf, particularly not for
obscure classics.
-tony
5 Oct
5 Oct
10:44 a.m.
On Thursday 04 October 2007 15:05, Tony Duell wrote:
I'd *still* like to someday get my hands on one of the fancier breakout boxes
I used to see in catalogs... :-)
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
My view is
that if you have spent little or nothing on the computer.
Then= a few pounds on a cable is a good investment. If you do not have
experie=
This is basically my view. As I said last night, don;t think of it as
'The cable cost 20 times as much as the rest of the computer' but as
'I've got a very nice machine here and it only cost me \pounds 21.00'
nce in making up cables then don't waste time
learning for a small
number.
I'm not so sure about that. Very often in setting up a vintage computer
you'll need a special cable (RS232 serial cables being an obvious
example, there are all sorts of odd pin-swaps you need for some
machines...), and it makes a lot of sense to be abe to make it up. You
can't always buy the right cable off-the-shelf, particularly not for
obscure classics.
3:42 p.m.
I'm not so
sure about that. Very often in setting up a vintage computer
you'll need a special cable (RS232 serial cables being an obvious
example, there are all sorts of odd pin-swaps you need for some
machines...), and it makes a lot of sense to be abe to make it up. You
can't always buy the right cable off-the-shelf, particularly not for
obscure classics.
I'd *still* like to someday get my hands on one of the fancier breakout b=
oxes=20
I used to see in catalogs... :-)
6 Oct
6 Oct
12:42 a.m.
On Friday 05 October 2007 18:42, Tony Duell wrote:
How fancy is fancy?
Not too terribly, considering I can't in any way justify spending much if any
money on such a thing. The ability to interrupt any of the pins, maybe do
cross-connecting, and LED indicators would be nice.
I'm not so sure about that. Very often in setting
up a vintage computer
you'll need a special cable (RS232 serial cables being an obvious
example, there are all sorts of odd pin-swaps you need for some
machines...), and it makes a lot of sense to be abe to make it up. You
can't always buy the right cable off-the-shelf, particularly not for
obscure classics.
I'd *still* like to someday get my hands on one of the fancier breakout
boxes I used to see in catalogs... :-) I've got one here that does Bit-Error-Rate test,
and anohter that will do
RS232-current loop conversions, RS232 to parallel conversions, test RS232,
current loop, or parallel devices, and even program EPROMs. Oh, it's got a
little strip-printer built in too.
Well, I don't see me affording anything like that any time soon, though if I
were to somehow or other acquire one, I surely would NOT be
disappointed. :-)
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
11:42 a.m.
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 03:42:34 -0400> From:
rtellason at verizon.net> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Setting up a
VAXstation> > On Friday 05 October 2007 18:42, Tony Duell wrote:> > > >
I'm not so sure about that. Very often in setting up a vintage computer> > >
> you'll need a special cable (RS232 serial cables being an obvious> > >
> example, there are all sorts of odd pin-swaps you need for some> > > >
machines...), and it makes a lot of sense to be abe to make it up. You> > > >
can't always buy the right cable off-the-shelf, particularly not for> > >
> obscure classics.> > >> > > I'd *still* like to someday get my
hands on one of the fancier breakout> > > boxes I used to see in catalogs...
:-)> >> > How fancy is fancy?> > Not too terribly, considering I
can't in any way justify spending much if any > money on such a thing. The ability
to interrupt any of the pins, maybe do > cross-connecting, and LED indicators would be
nice.>
If you can't find one of these at someplace, you can always
make one. LED's that are rated for 20ma will still give out
noticable light at as low as 1 ma. Just design them for
about 2 ma at 5 volts and they should work fine over the
full range of RS232. Resistor limiting values of about 1500 ohms
should be fine.
Using two screw terminal blocks is a lot easier than locating
28 ga. wire for jumpers. Just put it on some vector board.
Even a piece of plywood and some hot glue would be fine.
Nothing hi tech about it.
If you really wanted to be fancy, you could add two 9V
batteries to drive static values for some of those hard to
figure out control line problems. You just need to add
some current limiting resistors to these.
Dwight
_________________________________________________________________
Peek-a-boo FREE Tricks & Treats for You!
http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us
3:13 p.m.
> I'd
*still* like to someday get my hands on one of the fancier breako=
ut
boxes I
used to see in catalogs... :-)
How fancy is fancy? I've got
one here that does Bit-Error-Rate test, and anohter that will =
do
RS232-current loop conversions, RS232 to parallel
conversions, test RS2=
32,
current loop, or parallel devices, and even
program EPROMs. Oh, it's go=
t a
little strip-printer built in too.=20
Well, I don't see me affording anything like that any time soon, though=
if I=20
were to somehow or other acquire one, I surely would NOT be=20
disappointed. :-)
4:15 p.m.
On Saturday 06 October 2007 18:13, Tony Duell wrote:
Not too terribly, considering I can't in any way justify spending much
if any money on such a thing. The ability to interrupt any of the pins,
maybe do cross-connecting, and LED indicators would be nice.
Err, isn't that what all breakout boxes so, even the simple ones.
No. I've not looked at that sort of thing in catalogs for quite a while, but
the last time I did, some years ago, that sort of thing was at the upper end
of what at least one company was offering, other stuff was quite simpler,
omitting the indicators and such, maybe a more limited patching ability, or
whatever.
I got mine ata radio rally for \pounds 15.00 ro something like that.
Yes I think I did rather well ;-).
I would tend to agree with that. Perhaps I should make it a point to get to
those some time, though accumulating some excess cash first would probably
help. It's been that kind of a year..
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
I'd
*still* like to someday get my hands on one of the fancier
breakout boxes I used to see in catalogs... :-)
How fancy is fancy? Every one I own (and I think I have 5 so far, maybe
more) has switches to
open-circuit each of the lines, sockets/ pins and jumper leads to
cross-connect. Some of them monitor all 25 (or maybe 24, often Protective
Ground is omitted) of the lines on LEDs, others monitor only the
cmmonly-used lines, but have some 'spare' indiocators you can patch to
any line.
About the only thing I've accumulated so far is a double-ended adapter that
has seven LEDs in it, which has already proved useful enough to have
justified its fairly reasonable cost. No patching in that one, just the
indicators, but it comes in handy sometimes anyway.
How does one accumulate _five_ of those things? :-)
I've got one here that does Bit-Error-Rate test,
and anohter that will
do RS232-current loop conversions, RS232 to parallel conversions, test
RS232, current loop, or parallel devices, and even program EPROMs. Oh,
it's got a little strip-printer built in too.
Well, I don't see me affording anything like that any time soon,
though if I were to somehow or other acquire one, I surely would NOT
be disappointed. :-)
7 Oct
7 Oct
10:46 a.m.
New subject: RS232 Breakout Boxes
> > >
I'd *still* like to someday get my hands on one of the fancier
> > > breakout boxes I used to see in catalogs... :-)
> >
> > How fancy is fancy?
>
> Not too terribly, considering I can't in any way justify spending mu=
ch
> if any money on such a thing. The ability
to interrupt any of the pi=
ns,=20
maybe do
cross-connecting, and LED indicators would be nice.
Err, isn't that what all breakout boxes so, even the simple ones. Every one I own (and I think I have 5 so far,
maybe more) has switches =
to
open-circuit each of the lines, sockets/ pins and
jumper leads to
cross-connect. Some of them monitor all 25 (or maybe 24, often Protecti=
ve
Ground is omitted) of the lines on LEDs, others
monitor only the
cmmonly-used lines, but have some 'spare' indiocators you can patch to
any line.
About the only thing I've accumulated so far is a double-ended adapter th=
at=20
has seven LEDs in it, which has already proved useful enough to have=20 justified its fairly reasonable cost. No patching in
that one, just the=
=20
indicators, but it comes in handy sometimes anyway.
How does one accumulate _five_ of those things? :-)
I can rememebr what 4 are :-)
1) An old RS23 breakout box. Real slide-switches to open all the wires,
and 2mm sockets for cross-patching. The main signals are monitored by
transistor-driven filament lamps, the whole thing is mains-powered,, said
PSU also prvides +12V and -=12V outputs for forcing handshake signals
2) A cheap (well, cheaply made) modern breakout ox. DIP swithcs to
interrupt the signals, turned-pin IC-socket pins for cross-patching, into
whcih you stich the bare ends of wires. Monitor LEDs for _all_ pins,
powered from the RS232 signals
3) A Neavtel Supertest. Runs off rechargeable batteries, DIP switches to
open the signals and pins (with socket-ended jumers) for cross-patching.
Does things like Bit Error Rate Tests. Monitors only the commonly-used
signals/
4) A Ferret. The breakout box part is DIP-switches and pins as in (3).
Monitors all suignals on RS232-powered LEDs. Also does things like
current loop/parallel conversions, printing, EPROM programming, etc.
Mains powered, of course.
-tony
1:52 p.m.
New subject: RS232 Breakout Boxes
On Sun, 7 Oct 2007, Tony Duell wrote:
I can rememebr what 4 are :-)
1) An old RS23 breakout box. Real slide-switches to open all the wires,
and 2mm sockets for cross-patching. The main signals are monitored by
transistor-driven filament lamps, the whole thing is mains-powered,, said
PSU also prvides +12V and -=12V outputs for forcing handshake signals
ARRGG!!! You've provoked me into building a banana-jack breakout box!
--
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 Oct
8 Oct
12:36 a.m.
On Thu, 4 Oct 2007, Tony Duell wrote:
I dunno...I've met a lot of folks online who found one of the various
cables I've been selling on eBay and didn't want to go about making their
own cables. I'd say half of them weren't even aware of classiccmp.
Currently about 10% of the cables I sell get shipped internationally. I
used to ship lots more internationally, especially to the UK, but with the
last postage increase from the USPS that pushed international shipping up
to around $20 US, the drop in sales hasn't been all that surprising.
-Toth
nce in making
up cables then don't waste time learning for a small
number.
I'm not so sure about that. Very often in setting up a vintage computer
you'll need a special cable (RS232 serial cables being an obvious
example, there are all sorts of odd pin-swaps you need for some
machines...), and it makes a lot of sense to be abe to make it up. You
can't always buy the right cable off-the-shelf, particularly not for
obscure classics.
6286
days inactive
6290
days old
10 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
dkelvey＠hotmail.com -
RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk -
rtellason＠verizon.net -
tothwolf＠concentric.net