Re: Panaplex display history
On 05/30/2015 05:00 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote: If you look closely at the displays, esp. at an angle to the glass, you can see the anode coating on the inside surface of the glass. If you see a red/brownish non-uniform discoloration in that coating, or discoloration around the ends of the segment bars, or some black spots on the segment bars, that can be an indication of 'burning' or 'wear'. Not sure how bad it has to get before it's a failure/problem, or how long it might last once that begins to appear. I'll give that a go. So far I've not noticed any like that, just the usual slightly-hazy appearance which every such display I've ever seen has. There should be nice high-voltage drivers on those boards too. Yes, I'm missing the wiring harnesses and the interface boards which hooked up to the pump mechanicals, but I've got the driver ICs for the displays, a complete PSU, a second PSU board, and one of the Z80-based logic boards. If the wiring was obvious (it's probably not) then it's possible that I could hook everything up and that there may be some sort of test mode to drive all the digits at once, which would save desoldering failed displays/drivers for reuse. We'll see. No, I never saw gas pumps with LED displays. As I recall, gas pumps around here went from mechanical to Beckman GD displays sometime in the mid-70s, then transitioned to LCD in the late-80s/early-90s. So pumps in Britain never saw the gas-discharge display generation? I don't remember them over in the UK, just mechanical displays being replaced by LCD. Although Nixies were used over in the UK, these types of 7-seg GD displays seemed much rarer generally. I just noticed yesterday (now that I knew what to look for) that one of the little old gas stations in town has pumps of the same style as the ones which I think these boards came from, so I'll go take a look at them when I get a chance (and maybe ask who owns them - I don't know if a gas station typically buys their pumps outright, or if they're leased from another company along with a maintenance contract) Speaking of old display technology, as someone who has been collecting NIXIE and other-display-type equipment for many years, the NIXIE clock craze of the past few years has been a bit of a surprise. And now that crowd has discovered the other old display types such as the 7-segment incandescent Numitron & minitron displays, which are quite rare. If you want a display technology that was obsolete almost from the day it was introduced that would be it. If I ever get around to building a NIXIE clock, I was going to try putting a motion detector in it to turn the display on/off for the sake of longevity of the displays. I'm very tempted to completely over-engineer a clock, just for the heck of it: using one of my Nixie-based voltmeters for the display portion, keeping it intact and sticking it in a small rack along with some sort of old computer to drive it (either directly via the rear-panel interface, or via a D/A convertor). The computer would have 'net access, so if I could find/compile/write an NTP client for it, it would be perfect. It would be way too power-hungry to just leave running all the time, of course, but it would be kind of goofy to see. For an alarm, well I know someone who has a 6V police siren from an old cop car... ;-) cheers Jules
Re: Intel absolute object file format specification
Eric Smith wrote on 5/31/2015 12:40 AM: Various Intel manual reference an "MCS 80/85 absolute object file formats" manual, order number 9800183B. Does anyone have this? Note that this is a pure binary format, not the well-known "Intel Hex" format. Check your inbox!
UA11 "Unibus Analyzer" Wanted
I didn't discover this wonderful project from Guy until *after* he had moved. And while he _may_ have a few boards left, they're still buried somewhere in his amazing collection of "materiel" :->. As I need to learn/work my way through various Unibus systems/scenarios ... starting with self-education ... I'd very much like to acquire one of these beasties. Does anyone have a UA11 PCB, kit, or completed board, with which they'd be willing to part? A good home with a friendly family is guaranteed! Many Thanks, paul
Franklin Ace 1000
Looks kind of like Apple II, but bigger. Hasd 1 external 5.25" diskette drive. Missing one keycap (the letter F). Make an offer, I can ship it. Totally untested J Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 cell sa...@elecplus.com AOL IM elcpls
Apple-1 doh!
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/31/usa-california-computer-idINL1N0YM0AX20150531 May 31 (Reuters) - A $100,000 check is waiting for a mystery woman who donated a rare Apple 1 computer to a Silicon Valley recycling firm. CleanBayArea in Milpitas, California, is trying to track down a woman in her 60s who dropped off some electronic goods in April, when she was cleaning out the garage after her husband died. In one of the boxes, buried under worthless keyboards, personal computer pieces and wires, was a 1976 Apple 1, a groundbreaking home computer. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak designed and hand-built the computers and sold them for $666.66 each. Only a few dozen are known still to exist. [...] -- Chris Elmquist
FFS Old HP Designjet Plotter stand - 24 inch
Before it goes to recycling, figured I 'd offer it here in case someone out there needs one. I have a plotter stand for the old HP Designjet units such as 650, 750 etc* in 24" width*. Set includes all the metal parts including the wire frame paper basket and the little plastic clip that goes on the front edges of the paper tray. Mounting screws are long gone but they are standard thread screws (and still available from HP if you *really* want to give away lots of pennies). Hardware is used but in good condition. Free for shipping from 95006 in two medium to large boxes. I will get a cost for anyone interested. Steve
Re: PDP 11/44 for sale
>Rod wrote: I have been on this list for a long time as a reader and wanted to give the list a heads up on this system before doing anything else in case somebody wants it and can pick it up. -- Cabinet 1: Quickware Engineering QED-95 CPU replacement 2- TU-58 tape drives Cabinet 2: BA11-KW RX02 floppies Cabinet 3: 2- RL02 disk drives 1-MDI 76-contains 1 Maxtor XT8760EM 760 Meg HD Cabinet 4: 2-RL02 disk drives 1-MDI 276-contains two Maxtor XT8760EM 760 Meg HDs I am asking US$3000.00 for the four cabinets. I can't guarantee anything but it was turned off working fine. The buyer would have the option of buying up to 18 RL02K-DC data carts for US$25 each Shipping is probably not an option they are about 300lbs + each I am located in Kelowna BC Canada about 3hrs north of Spokane Washington.. Preference would have to go to someone that could come and get it. Pictures are here http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/32499942349-1432868285-94725/0 Rod Rdooley at shaw dot ca My son has a trailer and could pick it up for me. Is there any possibility of turning on the system and checking if it boots? Which Operating System was being used before it was turned off? How long ago was the system run? Where has it been stored? Do you have any terminals? Should he bring one with him? Would a VT100 be satisfactory? Jerome Fine
RE: PDP 11/44 for sale
-Original Message- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jerome H. Fine Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2015 8:49 PM To: gene...@classiccmp.org; discuss...@classiccmp.org:On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: PDP 11/44 for sale >Rod wrote: >I have been on this list for a long time as a reader and wanted to give >the list a heads up on this system before > >doing anything else in case somebody wants it and can pick it up. > >-- > >Cabinet 1: >Quickware Engineering QED-95 CPU replacement >2- TU-58 tape drives > >Cabinet 2: >BA11-KW >RX02 floppies > >Cabinet 3: >2- RL02 disk drives >1-MDI 76-contains 1 Maxtor XT8760EM 760 Meg HD > >Cabinet 4: >2-RL02 disk drives >1-MDI 276-contains two Maxtor XT8760EM 760 Meg HDs > >I am asking US$3000.00 for the four cabinets. I can't guarantee >anything but it was turned off working fine. > >The buyer would have the option of buying up to 18 RL02K-DC data carts >for >US$25 each > >Shipping is probably not an option they are about 300lbs + each > >I am located in Kelowna BC Canada about 3hrs north of Spokane Washington.. >Preference would have to go to someone that could come and get it. > >Pictures are here > >http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/32499942349-1432868285-94725/0 > >Rod > >Rdooley at shaw dot ca > My son has a trailer and could pick it up for me. Is there any possibility of turning on the system and checking if it boots? Which Operating System was being used before it was turned off? How long ago was the system run? Where has it been stored? Do you have any terminals? Should he bring one with him? Would a VT100 be satisfactory? Jerome Fine Hi Jerome The system was running RSX11M+, and it was used as an RMCS. It had about 6 terminals on it and was gathering data from about 10 sites. I was shut down in 2000 and I have had it since then. It has been in my garage the whole time. There have been no rodents or anything. I used the RMCS but didn't do any of the work on the system. As far as I know the cables were unplugged and put into each cabinet. One of the MDI disks was taken from cabinet 3 by someone I don't know whether it was a MDI 76 or 276. I don't have any terminals That I would be sure works as I never tried to get it going again. It also had two RK07 attached to it that I couldn't get. I do have some spare cards and the original cpu cards that would go with it. It would be a bit of a project to start it up I guess, I don't know which disk it boots off, hopefully not the that's missing. Rod
