Care and feeding of some Lisp machines (TI Explorer and Xerox Star)

[Michael Engel]

Well, today's my lucky day :) - I found a box with three TI  mice+pads and three fiber cables:
https://multicores.org/explorer/

If you need any measurements of the connectors or the fiber optic cable itself (I'm sure
our physics department can help out...) let me know.

And what I thought were simple Tektronix vector terminals turned out to be two Tektronix
4404 machines and one 4406 - the 68010/020-based Smalltalk machines (which can also 
run Common Lisp). So more great stuff for our exhibition - and more machines to work on...

> On 15 Sep 2020, at 05:44, James B DiGriz via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:35:50 +0200
> Michael Engel via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> Some things I could not find so far are the mouse and the console
>> cable for the Explorer. It seems that the mouse is related to
>> MouseSystems optical mice used on older Sun/SGI systems (but the
>> interface might be different?). The fiber optics cable for the
>> display (TI part number 2233200 according to the field service
>> manual) might be another problem 
>> - if you know any details about this, I would be very interested...
>> 
> 
> This is the same part # listed for the 990, and I would think, lacking
> documentation on them, the BS600 and BS800 machines, if using
> the CI404 comm board. I don't know how common those were. My college
> only started using them after a lightning strike took out some machines
> through one or more serial links, iirc. But that may broaden your search. 
> 
> From the CI403/CI404 manual
> (http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/990/datacomm/2263897_9701B_CI403_Nov83.pdf):
> 
> 	2233200-0001	Standard duplex fiber-optic cable, 15m
> 
> 	2233201-0002	Fiber-optic extension cable, 60m
> 	2233201-0003    Fiber-optic extension cable, 150m
> 	2233201-0004	Fiber-optic extension cable, 300m
> 
> 	2233210-0001	Converter module kit, includes: Converter,
> 			Power Module, and Power Cord.
> 
> The extension cables include a connector for connectin 2 cables. 
> 
> I may have some more information on the mouse and maybe some cable specs
> soon. Talking to some people who likely know. 
> 
> jbdigriz