RE: DEC Runoff to any modern format conversion - MORE INFO

[Robert Jarratt]

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ernest G.
> Allen
> Sent: 07 June 2015 01:02
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Subject: RE: DEC Runoff to any modern format conversion - MORE INFO
> 
> 
> On Sat, 6 Jun 2015, Robert Jarratt wrote:
> 
> > Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2015 05:36:40
> > From: Robert Jarratt 
> > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"
> > 
> > Subject: RE: DEC Runoff to any modern format conversion - MORE INFO
> >
> > I have had a go with some of Tom's files but I have encountered some
> > problems. It seems the files have some commands in them that are not
> > recognised by any of the versions of runoff that I have. I have tried
> > on VMS 5.5-2, 7.3 and 8.4.
> >
> > The commands that are not recognised include (not a full list):
> >
> > .style header
> > .autotitle
> > .ebb
> > .fta
> > .referencepoint
> >
> > I have a vague recollection that DEC had some other internal version
> > of runoff, and I wonder if these commands are for such a version.
> >
> > Anyone know?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Rob
> >
> 
> The .ebb is the short version of .ENABLE BAR (for change bars).
> It allows the .bb (.BEGIN BAR) and .eb (.END BAR) commands to take effect.
> Without .ebb the .bb and .eb commands don't affect the output.  A .dbb
> (.DISABLE BAR) command will cause the .bb and .eb commands to be ignored.
> 
> The .style header is a fancy one that controls which levels of headings
(1-6)
> have section numbers before them, which are made into run-in headers or
> centered headers, and so forth.  See the "OpenVMS DIGITAL Standard Runoff
> Reference Manual" at
> http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-
> c04623260
> 
> I don't know about .autotitle, .fta, or .referencepoint and could only
guess.
> 


That is the manual I looked at. I should have said with regard to .style
headers that I think the problem is the following syntax, it has lines like
this:

.style header (level=1,before=1,after=1,norunin,firstcap)

Which don't appear to conform to the definition of the command in the
manual, although there could be more syntax defined somewhere in the manual
that allows this, but suffice to say runoff doesn't like those lines.

Another example is .EBB, in the file it is:

.ebb '|'

And it complains about the bit after "ebb", the manual doesn't seem to allow
for the bar character to be specified

Overall, it looks like some special version of runoff to me. I tried the
/DEC_INTERNAL switch, but it made no difference.

Regards

Rob

RE: DEC Runoff to any modern format conversion - MORE INFO

[John Wallace]

[massive snippages for brevity]

Apologies if this is a daft question badly presented: has anybody mentioned, or 
better still looked at, DSRPLUS for this picture yet? I did have a quick look 
but may have missed it.

It is, as the name suggests, intended as a bigger better version of DEC/DIGITAL 
Standard Runoff.

Some variants of DSRPLUS are available through VMS freeware (some, e.g. 
freeware V6 and V7, appear to be available online and working). DSRPLUS might 
even already be available on one of the general-access VMS systems, for anyone 
who can't install it locally.

It gets better too: a web search for "dsrplus documentation" (ie where is the 
DSRPLUS manual) doesn't quickly find a DSRPLUS manual but does quickly find a 
Bitsavers copy of the HSC50 User Guide, whose frontmatter says "This document 
was generated using DSRPLUS." Could be coincidence, but for someone looking for 
MSCP specs...

Apologies if I'm in the wrong tree. 

Have a lot of fun.

Re: Looking for PDF files of The Computer Journal

[Paul Birkel]

https://archive.org/details/the-computer-journal ?

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 12:39 AM, Kip Koon  wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am looking for pdf files for the Computer Journal.  There is a series of
> articles on designing microprocessors I'd like to someday read about.  Any
> ideas where they may be located?
>
>
>
> Kip Koon
>
>   computer...@sc.rr.com
>
>  
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
>
>
>
>
>
>

Re: PDP-8/e front panels.

[Noel Chiappa]

> From: Rod Smallwood

> I have recently produced a number of high quality custom PDP8/e front
> panels.  They are full size reproductions of the original. The
> production methods are exactly as used in circa 1971.

First, my sincere congratulations! This is a real contribution, and I doubt it
was trivial to accomplish.

> I'll also instigate another batch of ten. .. If I get orders for more
> than ten then I'll bump up the second batch size accordingly.

These sound so cool I'm tempted to buy one, even though I don't even own a
PDP-8! :-)

> If there is a demand I'll do other 8's or 11's front panels that use
> the same plexiglas and silk screen technique.

Someone mentioned -12's and -15's?

I don't (yet) need any -11 ones, although at some point, I might need an
11/20 one (I have a line on an 11/20 that spent a lot of time outside, so its
front panel is sadly very faded).


The thing we really need to find now is a source for the special switches
that DEC used in the front panels of the machines of this generation.

Electrically, they are just standard SPDT switches (usually two-position,
although for some - e.g. Deposit/Start - they are momentary-contact
spring-loaded); the real issue is the mechanical fastening, which uses a
special front plate (albeit on a standard micro-switch body).

I have a number of different ones in my machines, from various manufacturers,
but I have had no luck tracking down new ones through the part numbers on
them (they seem to be DEC part numbers, or adaptions thereof). I have asked a
number of people, but nobody seems to have spares/extras.

Anyone know of a source?

Noel

Re: X11 expertise on ancient HW sought... (4-plane visual (overlay) via X-server on MS-WIndows)

[Mouse]

> Mouse, thanks very much for taking the time to comment.

You're welcome!  I've received so much help over the years from the
net, paying it back in some small part is the least I can do.  Even in
a case like this where I can't really help except in generalities.

>> [...] comparatively small code changes [...]
> [...] does not have the source.

Oh.  Yeah, that runs the cost of that option up.  Substantially. :-(

>> You probably do not need a GPU.  The era when 4-bit visuals were
>> common was full of dumb memory-mapped framebuffers; modern CPUs are
>> fast enough that they can probably fake up a 4-bit overlay visual
>> and still run at least as fast as the hardware your client software
>> was designed to run against.

>> I'm not sure how hard it would be to do.  [...]

> Depending on the cost, hacking the X-Server might be an option.  I
> have presented MS-Windows as a given here, but in fact I could also
> use Linux.  Do any possibilities involving Linux occur to you?

Nothing specific, because I don't use Linux - and, given what I've seen
in my brushes with Linux-land, I am inclined to doubt that anyone has
built out-of-the-box support for such a thing.

But I would hope Linux is capable of presenting a dumb 24bpp
memory-mapped framebuffer to userland, in which case an X server could
be built which presents whatever it wants to clients and then composits
it all into the framebuffer, with the main CPU if necessary.  (This
would make colourmap changes comparatively expensive if the underlying
hardware is TrueColor instead of DirectColor, but only _comparatively_
expensive - I'd guess such a change could probably be done within a
single vertical retrace.)

However, as I said, this is not something I've ever personally tried,
so I have only wild guesses at how easy it would be.  At least with
Linux on the (X) server host, I become much more confident it's just
("just", hah!) a SMOP.

/~\ The ASCII Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTMLmo...@rodents-montreal.org
/ \ Email!   7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

Re: Need Dos bootable 5 1/4" floppy with binary or hex editor

[geneb]

On Sat, 6 Jun 2015, jwsmobile wrote:

For Pick folks (Mr. F15) I don't know the sysprog password, and need to null 
it out.


Cool!  Are you going to try to image the disk in order to use it in a 
virtual machine?


g.

--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.

ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

Re: Looking for PDF files of The Computer Journal

[geneb]

On Sun, 7 Jun 2015, Kip Koon wrote:


Hi Everyone,

I am looking for pdf files for the Computer Journal.  There is a series of
articles on designing microprocessors I'd like to someday read about.  Any
ideas where they may be located?


https://archive.org/details/the-computer-journal

g.

--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.

ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

RE: DEC Runoff to any modern format conversion - MORE INFO

[Robert Jarratt]

I wasn't aware of DSRPLUS, sounds like it could be what is needed.

Thanks

Rob

-Original Message-
From: "John Wallace" 
Sent: ‎07/‎06/‎2015 10:30
To: "cctalk@classiccmp.org" 
Subject: RE: DEC Runoff to any modern format conversion - MORE INFO

[massive snippages for brevity]

Apologies if this is a daft question badly presented: has anybody mentioned, or 
better still looked at, DSRPLUS for this picture yet? I did have a quick look 
but may have missed it.

It is, as the name suggests, intended as a bigger better version of DEC/DIGITAL 
Standard Runoff.

Some variants of DSRPLUS are available through VMS freeware (some, e.g. 
freeware V6 and V7, appear to be available online and working). DSRPLUS might 
even already be available on one of the general-access VMS systems, for anyone 
who can't install it locally.

It gets better too: a web search for "dsrplus documentation" (ie where is the 
DSRPLUS manual) doesn't quickly find a DSRPLUS manual but does quickly find a 
Bitsavers copy of the HSC50 User Guide, whose frontmatter says "This document 
was generated using DSRPLUS." Could be coincidence, but for someone looking for 
MSCP specs...

Apologies if I'm in the wrong tree. 

Have a lot of fun.

VMS EXCHANGE format for VAX console media

[Mark J. Blair]

I have a copy of an 11/730 console tape which I have been told is in EXCHANGE 
format as created by the CONSCOPY utility. Can any of the VMS experts here help 
this VMS noob learn how to translate that into a raw block-level image of the 
corresponding TU58 tape, which I might be able to use with a TU58 emulator?

I see that the EXCHANGE image is 512 bytes longer than a full TU58 tape. Could 
it be as simple as chopping off the first or last 512 bytes? I'm not quite at 
the point yet where I know what a console tape ought to look like in a hex 
editor, so I can't clearly see whether that might work yet.

I'm presently starting to work on getting some version of VMS running on an 
emulated 11/780 under simh. So with any luck, I may have a functioning VMS 
environment before too long, even though I haven't managed to boot up my real 
11/730 yet. My end goal is to use that console tape image with some TU58 
emulator to boot up my real VAX. I have some original console tapes for it, but 
they no longer seem to be readable. I did get my machine to examine one of them 
quite a bit before deciding it wasn't suitable, so maybe there is still some 
recoverable data on those tapes... but none of them seem to be sufficiently 
error-free to boot my machine.

I'm presently working on booting it from a downloaded console tape image, but 
getting tu58em and my 11/730 to like each other is still an ongoing project. 
Once I get there, I think that this EXCHANGE format image that I have is the 
same console tape version as my unreadable real tapes, and newer than the other 
downloaded image that I'm presently trying to use, so it would be nice to be 
able to get it into a format that I can use directly.

Thanks in advance for any clues!

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: VMS EXCHANGE format for VAX console media

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Jun 5, 2015, at 19:05 , Johnny Billquist  wrote:
> See if you can spot the RT-11 file system in there.

Aha, is the console tape supposed to be in RT-11 format? That's something I can 
look for. My home-grown RT-11 filesystem finagling utility barfed on my 
"suspected good" raw image, but that could very well be a bug in my own code. 
I'll dig in with a hex editor tonight and look for the filesystem header blocks.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: VMS EXCHANGE format for VAX console media

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-06-06 01:57, Mark J. Blair wrote:

I have a copy of an 11/730 console tape which I have been told is in EXCHANGE 
format as created by the CONSCOPY utility. Can any of the VMS experts here help 
this VMS noob learn how to translate that into a raw block-level image of the 
corresponding TU58 tape, which I might be able to use with a TU58 emulator?

I see that the EXCHANGE image is 512 bytes longer than a full TU58 tape. Could 
it be as simple as chopping off the first or last 512 bytes? I'm not quite at 
the point yet where I know what a console tape ought to look like in a hex 
editor, so I can't clearly see whether that might work yet.

I'm presently starting to work on getting some version of VMS running on an 
emulated 11/780 under simh. So with any luck, I may have a functioning VMS 
environment before too long, even though I haven't managed to boot up my real 
11/730 yet. My end goal is to use that console tape image with some TU58 
emulator to boot up my real VAX. I have some original console tapes for it, but 
they no longer seem to be readable. I did get my machine to examine one of them 
quite a bit before deciding it wasn't suitable, so maybe there is still some 
recoverable data on those tapes... but none of them seem to be sufficiently 
error-free to boot my machine.

I'm presently working on booting it from a downloaded console tape image, but 
getting tu58em and my 11/730 to like each other is still an ongoing project. 
Once I get there, I think that this EXCHANGE format image that I have is the 
same console tape version as my unreadable real tapes, and newer than the other 
downloaded image that I'm presently trying to use, so it would be nice to be 
able to get it into a format that I can use directly.

Thanks in advance for any clues!


Unless I'm really confused, "EXCHANGE" is not a format. EXCHANGE is a 
program under VMS to read/write RT-11 format file systems, which is what 
you usually had on the FE media.


However, if you actually have EXCHANGE create an image copy of a 
tape/disk, and it actually is 512 bytes larger than the device, then I 
guess EXCHANGE have some sort of image dump format with some extra block 
with some meta-data.


See if you can spot the RT-11 file system in there.

Johnny

--
Johnny Billquist  || "I'm on a bus
  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive! ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

Re: PDP8/e front panels.

[Rod Smallwood]

Hello Mike
 Photo attached - the real thing is much sharper.

Rod


On 06/06/2015 15:03, Mike Ross wrote:

Oh I'll take two or three of those if they're any good.

Might be interested in commissioning your young ladies to do pdp-15
and pdp-12 panels too.

Mike

On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 10:13 PM, Rod Smallwood
 wrote:

Hi All
   I have recently produced a number of high quality custom PDP8/e
front panels.
They are full size reproductions of the original. The production methods are
exactly as used in circa 1971.
They are not photographs. The front has the two colours plus the white each
done with its own silk screen and the back
has the intense black with the clear circular areas for the lamps to shine
through. The inks were matched and made to order. The acrylic blanks with
the cutouts for the keys were also a custom order.

I did the artwork, The four screens were made and the printing done by  two
young ladies with very good graphic arts
skills at 'Squegee & Ink Ltd'  local to me here in Newbury UK. I have some
photos but they do not do justice to the pin
sharp lines and intense colours.

The panel fits the bezel and the switches on the key + lamps board line up.

I have a few to sell and can do more if needed.
Due to the custom production they will not be low cost ($95.00 + shipping
from UK)

If you are interested I'll send you a picture. My photo skills are not that
good.

Rod Smallwood

Re: X11 expertise on ancient HW sought... (4-plane visual (overlay) via X-server on MS-WIndows)

[Robert Urban]

Mouse, thanks very much for taking the time to comment.

On 06/06/2015 02:35 PM, Mouse wrote:
>> Am I correct to assume that the GPU must support 4bpp in order for it
>> even to be possible for the X-server to propagate a 4-plane visual to
>> a client?
> No.  However, it is substantially more difficult for an X server to
> present a visual that the hardware doesn't support, which is probably
> why the server you have doesn't do it.  Well-behaved clients must be
> prepared to handle whatever capabilities the server presents; the
> problem here is that the client you have handles the server you have by
> complaining and dying.
>
> Depending on what other capabilities the client is using, you might be
> able to get the overlay effect using colourmap hackery with
> comparatively small code changes.  What PseudoColor or DirectColor
> visuals are available?
If you are talking about hacking the x-client, no chance. At least, that would
probably entail unacceptable cost for the customer.

>> If yes, how can I determine if a GPU supports 4bpp?
> Read the documentation, of course, or contact the manufacturer's
> support department.
Kind of hopeless in the case of manufacturers of mass-market hardware...

>> Nvidia is very sparing with the information in their specs for the
>> Quadro 400 GPU.
> You may be out of luck without repalcing the hardware, then.  (That's
> one of the prices of buying undocumented hardware)
The Quadro 400 is coincidence. The test hardware was randomly chosen before all
this 4-plane stuff was known. The solution can be anything reasonable.

>> Assuming I can find a GPU that supports/offers 4bpp, does anyone know
>> an X-server product/project that can provide 4-plane overlays?
> You probably do not need a GPU.  The era when 4-bit visuals were common
> was full of dumb memory-mapped framebuffers; modern CPUs are fast
> enough that they can probably fake up a 4-bit overlay visual and still
> run at least as fast as the hardware your client software was designed
> to run against.
>
> I'm not sure how hard it would be to do.  My X server hackery has never
> included faking something the hardware doesn't support, so my
> experience is rather limited in that direction.  But I've done DDX
> layers for at least three widely disparate framebuffers, and I feel
> reasonably confident what you want could be done.
>
I have presented MS-Windows as a given here, but in fact I could also use LInux.
Do any possibilities involving Linux occur to you?

cheers,
Rob

Omnibus pcb layout. Was: pdp8/e /f /m Omnibus legenda available

[Simon Claessen]

Oh and i've made a omnibus pcb layout in Kicad with a corresponding schematic part with all signals. I will put it on our hack42 github account. As i have not mastered the art of 
making a template, it is a kicad project.


On 05-06-15 23:31, Simon Claessen wrote:

Hello all,

As part of my effort to resurrect our lately broken pdp8/f, I've made a nice 
drawing of the connector lugs of an omnibus card with its signals next to it. 
Both sides are done
together on one page.

any comments are welcome

link: https://hack42.nl/wiki/Bestand:Omnibus_legenda.pdf


--
Met vriendelijke Groet,

Simon Claessen
drukknop.nl

Re: VMS EXCHANGE format for VAX console media

[Peter Coghlan]

>
> I have a copy of an 11/730 console tape which I have been told is in EXCHANGE
> format as created by the CONSCOPY utility. Can any of the VMS experts here
> help this VMS noob learn how to translate that into a raw block-level image
> of the corresponding TU58 tape, which I might be able to use with a TU58
> emulator?
>

I've never actually used it but I thought CONSCOPY sounded familar from
somewhere.  I had a quick look on my VAX/VMS V5.5-2 system and found
SYS$UPDATE:CONSCOPY.COM.  It is probably to be found in the same place on
every other version of VAX/VMS.  Below are some comments from the top of the
file.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.

$ !  Copyright (c) 1987 Digital Equipment Corporation.  All rights reserved.
$ !
$ ! CONSCOPY -- Save or Restore a console medium
$ !
$ ! Inputs:
$ ! P1 - Kit type: 8600 or 8200 or 78x or 750 or 730
$ ! P2 - Function: SAVE or RESTORE
$ ! P3 - Files-11 virtual disk name
$ ! P4 - Console device drive
$ ! P5 - File to be written on the bootblock of the console medium.
$ !  Optional.  The defaults are:
$ ! 8600- RT11FB.SYS
$ ! 78x - CONSOL.SYS
$ ! 8200- BOOT58.EXE
$ ! 8300- BOOT58.EXE
$ ! 750 - BOOT58.EXE
$ ! 730 - BOOT.EXE
$ !
$ ! This program saves or restores a console medium.  It uses the native
$ ! mode utility EXCHANGE to copy and re-format files between a user medium
$ ! (Files-11 format) and a console medium (RT-11 format).

Re: Omnibus pcb layout. Was: pdp8/e /f /m Omnibus legenda available

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Jun 6, 2015, at 07:10, Simon Claessen  wrote:
> 
> Oh and i've made a omnibus pcb layout in Kicad with a corresponding schematic 
> part with all signals. I will put it on our hack42 github account. As i have 
> not mastered the art of making a template, it is a kicad project.

VERY cool!


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

RE: VMS EXCHANGE format for VAX console media

[Robert Armstrong]

  FWIW, I can confirm that the 730 console tapes are in RT11 format, as are
the 750's.  DEC standardized on that format for console media, even though
there is no actual PDP-11 involved in the 725/730/750.

  And EXCHANGE has the ability to create "virtual" media images on disk.
The CONSCOPY script creates a virtual TU58 image file and then copies all
the files from the real console TU58 to the virtual copy.  Why the copy has
an extra 512 bytes, I don't know.

  I agree with Johnny - dump out the image and look for the RT11 directory. 

Bob

Re: VMS EXCHANGE format for VAX console media

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-06-06 04:08, Mark J. Blair wrote:



On Jun 5, 2015, at 19:05 , Johnny Billquist  wrote:
See if you can spot the RT-11 file system in there.


Aha, is the console tape supposed to be in RT-11 format? That's something I can look for. 
My home-grown RT-11 filesystem finagling utility barfed on my "suspected good" 
raw image, but that could very well be a bug in my own code. I'll dig in with a hex 
editor tonight and look for the filesystem header blocks.


I definitely know that this is the case for the VAX-11/78x and VAX-86x0 
machines. And you use EXCHANGE to access the files.
I haven't properly looked at the 11/750, 11/730 or 11/725, but I don't 
think EXCHANGE understands anything else but the RT-11 filesystem. As 
far as I know, that was EXCHANGE existed for. It might be able to read 
DOS-11 tapes as well. (If we talk about pure 1/2" magtape.)


Johnny

--
Johnny Billquist  || "I'm on a bus
  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive! ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

[Michael Thompson]

W contacted David Tumey about Teletype hammers. He will send us some as a
donation. We put some heat-shrink tubing on to stop further damage.

Warren repaired and tested the M706 Teletype receiver. We put it back in
the PDP-12 and put the borrowed M706 back in the PDP-8/I. The donor brought
another M706/M707 pair, so we tested them and then installed them. We have
two working serial ports in the PDP-12. Warren is making an Arduino based
programmable baud rate generator for this system.

We ran more diags. The 8/I Instruction Test #1 & #2, and the random JMP,
JMP-JMS, ISZ tests work OK. The LINC Tape-Quickie test and the Memory
Address test fail after running OK for a few minutes. We tested all of the
G221 Memory Selectors, and they are OK, so the memory address decoding is
probably working OK. This may be a case where the processor is sometimes
doing the wrong thing when comparing numbers, and the rest of the hardware
is actually OK. Debugging this will be the project for next week.

The donor dropped off more documentation, spare parts, LINC tapes
containing the DIAL operating system, and an RK05 disk pack that likely
contains OS/8. We will make image copies of the LINC tapes and the disk
pack.

-- 
Michael Thompson

DHCP on VMS/VAX

[Ian S. King]

Hi folks,

ISTR that DHCP was introduced in TCPIP-5.1, which was included on the 7.3
hobbyist CD.  But I have a 7.2 CD….

I've installed VMS on SIMH on a G4 iBook (because I can), but then I
remembered (yet again) that 7.2 doesn't have DHCP, which is a pain with a
laptop on WiFi.

So I'm hoping to find either (a) the kit to install TCPIP-5.1 or (b) a 7.3
ISO image on a big enough pipe for FTP.  :-)  Can anyone help?  Oh, and if
you're looking for 7.2 (VAX) I have that….  Thanks!  -- Ian

-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School 

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab 

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

Re: PDP8/e front panels.

[Rod Smallwood]

£65.00 (Delivered)  or will swap + cash  for one or more of M833, M8340, 
M8341, M8300 or Top Connectors


Photo attached  (Real thing is much sharper)

On 06/06/2015 21:48, Dave G4UGM wrote:

Rob,
  How much in the UK
Dave


-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Adrian
Stoness
Sent: 06 June 2015 14:39
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: PDP8/e front panels.

pic?

On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 5:13 AM, Rod Smallwood

wrote:
Hi All
   I have recently produced a number of high quality custom
PDP8/e front panels.
They are full size reproductions of the original. The production
methods are exactly as used in circa 1971.
They are not photographs. The front has the two colours plus the white
each done with its own silk screen and the back has the intense black
with the clear circular areas for the lamps to shine through. The inks
were matched and made to order. The acrylic blanks with the cutouts
for the keys were also a custom order.

I did the artwork, The four screens were made and the printing done by
two young ladies with very good graphic arts skills at 'Squegee & Ink
Ltd'  local to me here in Newbury UK. I have some photos but they do
not do justice to the pin sharp lines and intense colours.

The panel fits the bezel and the switches on the key + lamps board line up.

I have a few to sell and can do more if needed.
Due to the custom production they will not be low cost ($95.00 +
shipping from UK)

If you are interested I'll send you a picture. My photo skills are not
that good.

Rod Smallwood

Re: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[joseph lang]

it's true very little LESI documentation escaped...But the klesi schematic
did. and it's well commented. lots of descriptive signal names. The
hardware to interface to it is almost trivial. I took a couple of hours
looking over the schematic and have written a couple of pages describing
how to make it work. Happy to send to anyone who wants it.
Writing  MSCP emulation is beyond my skill level. But i can read a
schematic.

joe

On Thu, Jun 4, 2015 at 11:56 PM, Robert Armstrong  wrote:

> >Ethan Dicks [ethan.di...@gmail.com] wrote:
> >did not come with a removable cartridge so I've not been able to spin it
> up
>
>   Yes, one of the annoyances of the RC25 is that you can't spin it up w/o
> the removable platter in place.  I have only one cartridge myself, and it's
> probably bad.  Somebody needs to come up with a hack to spin up the
> Winchester part alone (hint, hint :-)
>
> >One I've seen is to nibble a chunk out of the rim of the cover skin (to
> prevent pinching) and run a BC-11-A
> > Unibus ribbon cable out to a BA-11 and stick any number of controllers
> in that
>
>   Doesn't the 725 have one of the regular bulkhead connector panels on the
> back?  The one with the modular screw in plates?  If so, ISTR that there's
> a cable clamp one that will clear a BC11 cable.
>
>   In any case, I have no need for such foolishness :-)  I have a perfectly
> good 730 too, with a BA11-K expander in the next rack.  It works great, and
> that configuration (with the 730 instead of the 725) was even supported
> although uncommon.  I should go out in the garage and check how the UNIBUS
> cable is routed for you.
>
>   Besides, the cool thing (for me, at least) about the 725 was the
> packaging.  Any replacement drive would have to fit inside the original box
> to suit my taste.
>
>   The best option I've come up with is an SMD UNIBUS controller (I have
> just exactly one!) and a small SMD drive.  There were some small SMD drives
> that I think would fit inside the 725 case.  The front panel wouldn't be
> right, but it's better than nothing.  As you said, SCSI would be better,
> but I don't have a UNIBUS controller.
>
>   What I'd really like is to build a "LESI disk emulator" that could just
> plug into the AZTEC controller, but as far as I've ever been able to
> determine, DEC never documented LESI.  Or at least none of the
> documentation ever escaped.
>
>   BTW, my 725 is missing the outer sheet metal skin.  The previous owner
> apparently didn't think it was important and discarded it.  If anybody
> happens to have an extra VAX-11/725 skin, I'd love to know.
>
> Bob
>
>
>

Re: PDP-8/e front panels.

[Rod Smallwood]

The switches were made by a company in the US called Stackpole They 
still exist.

The switches are marked Patent  3217112
 They are a normal slide type modified with a U bracket to allow
the attachment of a lever arm to operate the switch when toggled up and 
down.

They come in three types ;  hold up or down to connect and close to connect.

The lever arms are molded  from a tough type of plastic (nylon or PET ?)
They have maintained their bright colour over the years suggesting a  
tightly bonded structure.


There appear to have been attempts to produce copies but the only results
I have seen, have been disappointing.

3D printing looks hopeful but not for production quantities,
The tooling for injection moulding (thats how they were produced back in 
the 1970's )

is too expensive.

At this time I'm just doing replacement panels for 8/e's and maybe other 8's
Long term a light weight  resin bezel and maybe (very maybe)
 a lamp and switch panel + microprocessr to emulate a real 8.
But only if the switch sourcing problem is solved.

Rod Smallwood (Newbury England)



On 07/06/2015 14:13, Noel Chiappa wrote:

 > From: Rod Smallwood

 > I have recently produced a number of high quality custom PDP8/e front
 > panels.  They are full size reproductions of the original. The
 > production methods are exactly as used in circa 1971.

First, my sincere congratulations! This is a real contribution, and I doubt it
was trivial to accomplish.

 > I'll also instigate another batch of ten. .. If I get orders for more
 > than ten then I'll bump up the second batch size accordingly.

These sound so cool I'm tempted to buy one, even though I don't even own a
PDP-8! :-)

 > If there is a demand I'll do other 8's or 11's front panels that use
 > the same plexiglas and silk screen technique.

Someone mentioned -12's and -15's?

I don't (yet) need any -11 ones, although at some point, I might need an
11/20 one (I have a line on an 11/20 that spent a lot of time outside, so its
front panel is sadly very faded).


The thing we really need to find now is a source for the special switches
that DEC used in the front panels of the machines of this generation.

Electrically, they are just standard SPDT switches (usually two-position,
although for some - e.g. Deposit/Start - they are momentary-contact
spring-loaded); the real issue is the mechanical fastening, which uses a
special front plate (albeit on a standard micro-switch body).

I have a number of different ones in my machines, from various manufacturers,
but I have had no luck tracking down new ones through the part numbers on
them (they seem to be DEC part numbers, or adaptions thereof). I have asked a
number of people, but nobody seems to have spares/extras.

Anyone know of a source?

Noel

EK-LESIB-TM KLESI-B Adapter Technical Manual

[Robert Armstrong]

  Does anyone have a copy of this document?  It's not on Manx and I don't
think it's on bitsavers, so it's a long shot but I have to ask.

 

  If someone has a printed copy and is willing to loan it or sell it, I'll
be happy to scan it and submit it to the archives.

 

Thanks,

Bob

RE: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[tony duell]

> it's true very little LESI documentation escaped...But the klesi schematic
> did. and it's well commented. lots of descriptive signal names. The
> hardware to interface to it is almost trivial. I took a couple of hours
> looking over the schematic and have written a couple of pages describing
> how to make it work. Happy to send to anyone who wants it.
> Writing  MSCP emulation is beyond my skill level. But i can read a
> schematic.

Is the KLESI printset on-line anywhere? I couldn't quickly find it on bitsavers
(although the RC25 printset is there, but I suspect most RC25 problems
are mechanical, not electronic)

-tony

Improved MSV11-P FMPS

[Noel Chiappa]

So I have a busted MSV11-P, and I needed the FMPS to work on it. There is one
online, but on my computers, it was extremely faint, and very hard (almost
impossible) to read.

So I have worked on it some, and I have a new version here:

  http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/MP01239_MSV11-P.pdf

which I feel is much more legigible, and is also a lot smaller (3.5MB instead
of 36MB). 

The default page size is quite small (I have no idea why, I didn't do the
re-conversion to PDF, I don't have Acrobat), but if you blow it up to about
300%, it still has good resolution at that point, and it's quite readable -
all the signal names, pin numbers, package numbers, etc are quite legible.

It doesn't have as much resolution hidden away as the original, but for most
purposes, it seems quite acceptable (in fact, more so in some ways, given the
increased legibility). I was interested in producing something readable, and
easier to manage, and I think this new version succeeds at both.


For those who are interested in the details of what I did (because I've seen
other FMPS scans with this issue, and it might help someone down the road),
after first saving all the pages as individual images (like I said, I don't
have Acrobat, so whatever I did had to be done with something else - and I'm
not sure Acrobat can do what needed to be done to make them legible, anyway),
I started out by trying to simply increase the contrast. That didn't do
anything (at least, with my image tool).

Looking at the page images under magnification, I discovered why: the areas
of ink (lines, letters etc) were actually (in the scanned image) a stipple of
white and black pixels, which together produced the (un-readable) light gray
printing of the original. So the contrast enhancement knob didn't do anything
- each individual pixel was already quite light, or dark.

So I used something called an averaging tool (which takes small groups of
pixels, and averages them together), with a small averaging box size (I used
2x2), which converted the ink areas to a uniform grey; I could then use
contrast enhancement to bring the printing up.

I then reduced most pages to 40% of the original size, since the originals
were scanned at 600 dpi, in 8-bit/pixel grayscale, and were pretty huge. (I
didn't go that far on a few pages - the PCB images - which could use the
higher resolution. Also, if you want the full resolution, the original scan
is of course still available.) In addition to making the images smaller, this
actually increased the crispness of the printing, since the reduction
sampling process got rid of a lot of the jaggedness that the previous steps
had left.

I finally converted the resulting images from 8-bit/pixel grayscale to
1-bit/pixel black-and-white; on inspection of the two side-by-side, this lost
a tiny bit of definition, but I felt that the reduction in size was worth it,
plus to which my image tool has compression for 1-bit/pixel B+W TIFFs, but
not for 8-bit/pixel grayscale TIFFs, so I won doubly on the size.

Noel

Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

[Ali]

Hello All,

My googlefu has failed me in trying to locate actual drivers for download
for this card. This was a TIGA (34010) based card w/ built in VGA (so no
pass through) with 1MB of VRAM and 2MB of DRAM. I believe there were DOS
utilities, Windows 3.x drivers, and SW specific drivers (e.g. AutoCAD). OS/2
or NT drivers would be fantastic but I doubt they are out there. TIA!

-Ali

RE: Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

[Electronics Plus]

There is a BBS listed at the bottom of this page for older drivers, maybe
that will help?
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/two-more-tigas/



-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ali
Sent: Sunday, June 07, 2015 12:28 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

Hello All,

My googlefu has failed me in trying to locate actual drivers for download
for this card. This was a TIGA (34010) based card w/ built in VGA (so no
pass through) with 1MB of VRAM and 2MB of DRAM. I believe there were DOS
utilities, Windows 3.x drivers, and SW specific drivers (e.g. AutoCAD). OS/2
or NT drivers would be fantastic but I doubt they are out there. TIA!

-Ali




-
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2014.0.4800 / Virus Database: 4311/9967 - Release Date: 06/07/15

RE: Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

[Electronics Plus]

Maybe this will do it?
http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/software/dos/graphics/gds109.zip/gdsinfo.doc


-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ali
Sent: Sunday, June 07, 2015 12:28 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

Hello All,

My googlefu has failed me in trying to locate actual drivers for download
for this card. This was a TIGA (34010) based card w/ built in VGA (so no
pass through) with 1MB of VRAM and 2MB of DRAM. I believe there were DOS
utilities, Windows 3.x drivers, and SW specific drivers (e.g. AutoCAD). OS/2
or NT drivers would be fantastic but I doubt they are out there. TIA!

-Ali




-
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2014.0.4800 / Virus Database: 4311/9967 - Release Date: 06/07/15

RE: DHCP on VMS/VAX

[Robert Jarratt]

That might actually be a fun project to create a DHCP client for versions of 
UCX/TCPIP that don't implement it. I will add it to my list.

Regards

Rob

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ian S. King
> Sent: 07 June 2015 00:16
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts
> Subject: DHCP on VMS/VAX
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> ISTR that DHCP was introduced in TCPIP-5.1, which was included on the 7.3
> hobbyist CD.  But I have a 7.2 CD….
> 
> I've installed VMS on SIMH on a G4 iBook (because I can), but then I
> remembered (yet again) that 7.2 doesn't have DHCP, which is a pain with a
> laptop on WiFi.
> 
> So I'm hoping to find either (a) the kit to install TCPIP-5.1 or (b) a 7.3 
> ISO image
> on a big enough pipe for FTP.  :-)  Can anyone help?  Oh, and if you're 
> looking
> for 7.2 (VAX) I have that….  Thanks!  -- Ian
> 
> --
> Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School
> 
> 
> Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal  Value
> Sensitive Design Research Lab 
> 
> University of Washington
> 
> There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

HP 3082A ("Industrial Touch") Terminal service manual or other info?

[Josh Dersch]

Hi all --

The lovely HP 3082A terminal I've been using with my PDP-11/73 has 
started exhibiting odd/annoying behavior today.  The 3082A is also known 
as the "Industrial Touch" terminal, it's a compact unit in a rugged 
housing with an EL display, built in keyboard, and a touchscreen.


At powerup, it normally gives a few short beeps and starts normal 
operation.  As of today, it gives one continuous beep for 31 seconds (I 
timed it), after which it works fine -- until the next time it needs to 
emit a beep (a ^G, for example) and then it beeps for 31 seconds again.  
This is, to be quite honest, intolerable :).


The manuals on hpmuseum.net are limited to configuration/user manuals 
and the brief troubleshooting it recommends actually *does* mention the 
continuous beeping symptom, but gives no suggestions for causes, and 
suggests as a fix to (a) try turning it off and on again (I've done 
that...) and (b) replace the terminal (can't do that). I've also tried 
resetting the terminal config (hold down Help + . at powerup) and this 
has no effect.  The terminal passes all built-in self tests.


Anyone happen to have any experience with these, or know where a service 
manual might be found?  If I at least knew what the 31-second beep 
signified I could start looking...


Thanks,
Josh

Re: DHCP on VMS/VAX

[Ian S. King]

That's cool!  Especially for older versions where the 5.1 TCPIP kit just
isn't an option.

FYI, everyone, a list member helped me out privately.  Community is great!
 -- Ian

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:09 PM, Robert Jarratt 
wrote:

> That might actually be a fun project to create a DHCP client for versions
> of UCX/TCPIP that don't implement it. I will add it to my list.
>
> Regards
>
> Rob
>
> > -Original Message-
> > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ian S.
> King
> > Sent: 07 June 2015 00:16
> > To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts
> > Subject: DHCP on VMS/VAX
> >
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > ISTR that DHCP was introduced in TCPIP-5.1, which was included on the 7.3
> > hobbyist CD.  But I have a 7.2 CD….
> >
> > I've installed VMS on SIMH on a G4 iBook (because I can), but then I
> > remembered (yet again) that 7.2 doesn't have DHCP, which is a pain with a
> > laptop on WiFi.
> >
> > So I'm hoping to find either (a) the kit to install TCPIP-5.1 or (b) a
> 7.3 ISO image
> > on a big enough pipe for FTP.  :-)  Can anyone help?  Oh, and if you're
> looking
> > for 7.2 (VAX) I have that….  Thanks!  -- Ian
> >
> > --
> > Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School
> > 
> >
> > Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
> Value
> > Sensitive Design Research Lab 
> >
> > University of Washington
> >
> > There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
>
>


-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School 

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab 

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

RE: DHCP on VMS/VAX

[Robert Jarratt]

I might make it my summer holiday project when all I have is a laptop and SIMH 
(although I will probably also do work on my user mode DECnet router).

Regards

Rob

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ian S. King
> Sent: 07 June 2015 22:11
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: DHCP on VMS/VAX
> 
> That's cool!  Especially for older versions where the 5.1 TCPIP kit just 
> isn't an
> option.
> 
> FYI, everyone, a list member helped me out privately.  Community is great!
>  -- Ian
> 
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:09 PM, Robert Jarratt 
> wrote:
> 
> > That might actually be a fun project to create a DHCP client for
> > versions of UCX/TCPIP that don't implement it. I will add it to my list.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Rob
> >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ian S.
> > King
> > > Sent: 07 June 2015 00:16
> > > To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts
> > > Subject: DHCP on VMS/VAX
> > >
> > > Hi folks,
> > >
> > > ISTR that DHCP was introduced in TCPIP-5.1, which was included on
> > > the 7.3 hobbyist CD.  But I have a 7.2 CD….
> > >
> > > I've installed VMS on SIMH on a G4 iBook (because I can), but then I
> > > remembered (yet again) that 7.2 doesn't have DHCP, which is a pain
> > > with a laptop on WiFi.
> > >
> > > So I'm hoping to find either (a) the kit to install TCPIP-5.1 or (b)
> > > a
> > 7.3 ISO image
> > > on a big enough pipe for FTP.  :-)  Can anyone help?  Oh, and if
> > > you're
> > looking
> > > for 7.2 (VAX) I have that….  Thanks!  -- Ian
> > >
> > > --
> > > Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School
> > > 
> > >
> > > Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal
> > > 
> > Value
> > > Sensitive Design Research Lab 
> > >
> > > University of Washington
> > >
> > > There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
> >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School
> 
> 
> Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal  Value
> Sensitive Design Research Lab 
> 
> University of Washington
> 
> There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

Re: DHCP on VMS/VAX

[Sean Caron]

Hi Ian,

If someone else doesn't come along ... please contact me off-list and maybe
we could work something out ... You do have a current hobbyist license, yes?

Best,

Sean


On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 7:16 PM, Ian S. King  wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> ISTR that DHCP was introduced in TCPIP-5.1, which was included on the 7.3
> hobbyist CD.  But I have a 7.2 CD….
>
> I've installed VMS on SIMH on a G4 iBook (because I can), but then I
> remembered (yet again) that 7.2 doesn't have DHCP, which is a pain with a
> laptop on WiFi.
>
> So I'm hoping to find either (a) the kit to install TCPIP-5.1 or (b) a 7.3
> ISO image on a big enough pipe for FTP.  :-)  Can anyone help?  Oh, and if
> you're looking for 7.2 (VAX) I have that….  Thanks!  -- Ian
>
> --
> Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
> The Information School 
>
> Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab 
>
> University of Washington
>
> There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
>

Re: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[Joseph Lang]

I found a file in my archive I got somewhere... I thought it was bitsavers.
Mp01876_klesi_engrdrws_aug84.pdf

Joe

> On Jun 7, 2015, at 1:03 PM, tony duell  wrote:
> 
> 
>> it's true very little LESI documentation escaped...But the klesi schematic
>> did. and it's well commented. lots of descriptive signal names. The
>> hardware to interface to it is almost trivial. I took a couple of hours
>> looking over the schematic and have written a couple of pages describing
>> how to make it work. Happy to send to anyone who wants it.
>> Writing  MSCP emulation is beyond my skill level. But i can read a
>> schematic.
> 
> Is the KLESI printset on-line anywhere? I couldn't quickly find it on 
> bitsavers
> (although the RC25 printset is there, but I suspect most RC25 problems
> are mechanical, not electronic)
> 
> -tony

Re: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[Joseph Lang]

I downloaded the rc-25 set from bitsavers. The klesi (q and u) prints were at 
the end.

Joe

> On Jun 7, 2015, at 1:03 PM, tony duell  wrote:
> 
> 
>> it's true very little LESI documentation escaped...But the klesi schematic
>> did. and it's well commented. lots of descriptive signal names. The
>> hardware to interface to it is almost trivial. I took a couple of hours
>> looking over the schematic and have written a couple of pages describing
>> how to make it work. Happy to send to anyone who wants it.
>> Writing  MSCP emulation is beyond my skill level. But i can read a
>> schematic.
> 
> Is the KLESI printset on-line anywhere? I couldn't quickly find it on 
> bitsavers
> (although the RC25 printset is there, but I suspect most RC25 problems
> are mechanical, not electronic)
> 
> -tony

VAX-11/730 %BOOT-F-Unexpected Machine Check

[Mark J. Blair]

I finally got the excellent AK6DN tu58em emulator working as my VAX-11/730's 
console drive, as discussed on VCF. The trouble appears to have been a simple 
timing issue: tu58em includes some time delays which run afoul of the 730 
console's very aggressive timeout checking. After patching in a command line 
flag to disable them, my 730 console seems to be happy with tu58em running on 
my MacBook Air over an FTDI USB/RS-232 converter. I've also tweaked the FTDI's 
driver settings to make sure that latency is minimized, but I'm not sure if I 
changed it significantly from the default. But the console appears to time out 
if the tape drive takes 20ms or more to respond to the initialization sequence, 
so every millisecond might impact reliability.

With the console working and loading up a version 57 11/730 console tape image 
that I found online, I've been trying to boot the machine up. When I try to 
boot from either the R80 or RL02, I get error message "%BOOT-F-Unexpected 
Machine Check". Does that error message mean anything to the VAX experts out 
there?

This machine was believe to be working before time + transport, and I'm trying 
to bring it up for the first time since I got it. I still have a lot of 
learning curve to climb, but I'm excited to have made more progress.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: VAX-11/730 %BOOT-F-Unexpected Machine Check

[Mark J. Blair]

A couple of folks have clued me in to my mistake: I should have been trying to 
boot DQ0/1 instead of DU0/1. Now I'm getting disk activity followed by 
"%BOOT-F-Unable to locate BOOT file", which is better! I found 725/730 
diagnostics on another tape image, so I'll try running those next.

Yay!


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: VAX-11/730 %BOOT-F-Unexpected Machine Check

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Jun 7, 2015, at 13:05, Mark J. Blair  wrote:
> 
> A couple of folks have clued me in to my mistake: I should have been trying 
> to boot DQ0/1 instead of DU0/1. Now I'm getting disk activity followed by 
> "%BOOT-F-Unable to locate BOOT file", which is better! I found 725/730 
> diagnostics on another tape image, so I'll try running those next.
> 
> Yay!

And... All diagnostics pass! Woohoo!


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: Need Dos bootable 5 1/4" floppy with binary or hex editor

[jim s]

i have a running r83 machine.  I just want to get the compaq going 
again, since it has working config battery, etc.  I have saved several 
of these, but all have various old age issues, and this one came up in 
the ebay auction with pick.


If you got a copy on the qt, you might  play with it if you like. :-)

thanks
Jim

On 6/7/2015 7:21 AM, geneb wrote:

On Sat, 6 Jun 2015, jwsmobile wrote:

For Pick folks (Mr. F15) I don't know the sysprog password, and need 
to null it out.


Cool!  Are you going to try to image the disk in order to use it in a 
virtual machine?


g.

Amstrad CPC 464

[Terry Stewart]

For any on the list that might be interested...

The colourful Amstrad CPC 464.  The latest in my stash/hoard/collection to
get the YouTube treatment.
http://youtu.be/rOuPuE194fo

Terry (Tez)

Re: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[Mike Ross]

On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 3:56 PM, Robert Armstrong  wrote:
>>Ethan Dicks [ethan.di...@gmail.com] wrote:
>>did not come with a removable cartridge so I've not been able to spin it up
>
>   Yes, one of the annoyances of the RC25 is that you can't spin it up w/o the 
> removable platter in place.  I have only one cartridge
> myself, and it's probably bad.  Somebody needs to come up with a hack to spin 
> up the Winchester part alone (hint, hint :-)

That should be trivial. I've never laid hands on an RC25, but there
must be a microswitch that detects when a cartridge is installed, and
is accessible for bodging...?

Mike

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

Re: PDP-8/e front panels.

[Mike Ross]

On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 1:13 AM, Noel Chiappa  wrote:
> > From: Rod Smallwood
>
> > I have recently produced a number of high quality custom PDP8/e front
> > panels.  They are full size reproductions of the original. The
> > production methods are exactly as used in circa 1971.
>
> First, my sincere congratulations! This is a real contribution, and I doubt it
> was trivial to accomplish.
>
> > I'll also instigate another batch of ten. .. If I get orders for more
> > than ten then I'll bump up the second batch size accordingly.
>
> These sound so cool I'm tempted to buy one, even though I don't even own a
> PDP-8! :-)
>
> > If there is a demand I'll do other 8's or 11's front panels that use
> > the same plexiglas and silk screen technique.
>
> Someone mentioned -12's and -15's?

That would be me.

I have one -12 with a smashed front panel, and one -15 with the nasty
XVM sticky plastic sheet front panel that would look much better with
a plexiglass replacement! The -15s I have also all have the same nasty
sticky sheet for the peripherals blinkenlights - RP15 & FP15, see
http://www.corestore.org/15-2.htm - I'd like to replace those too.

(They are a real oddity; did ANY other DEC equipment use this kind of
blinkenlights panel, with cheap nasty sticky plastic sheet instead of
plexiglass? I've never seen them anywhere except pdp-15 XVM systems)

Mike

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

Re: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[Ethan Dicks]

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 9:44 PM, Mike Ross  wrote:
> That should be trivial. I've never laid hands on an RC25, but there
> must be a microswitch that detects when a cartridge is installed, and
> is accessible for bodging...?

The problem is if you would do that, the heads on the empty cartridge
would load and smack together.   The RC25 has one motor spindle, one
positioner, and two pairs of heads.  I suppose if you found a way to
wedge the upper and lower arms of the removable cartridge so the heads
weren't damaged, you could use the fixed platter alone?

If you didn't, it would be as bad as forcing an RL02 or an RK05 to
load with no platter mounted.

-ethan

Re: PDP-8/e front panels.

[Rod Smallwood]

On 08/06/2015 02:51, Mike Ross wrote:

On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 1:13 AM, Noel Chiappa  wrote:

 > From: Rod Smallwood

 > I have recently produced a number of high quality custom PDP8/e front
 > panels.  They are full size reproductions of the original. The
 > production methods are exactly as used in circa 1971.

First, my sincere congratulations! This is a real contribution, and I doubt it
was trivial to accomplish.

 > I'll also instigate another batch of ten. .. If I get orders for more
 > than ten then I'll bump up the second batch size accordingly.

These sound so cool I'm tempted to buy one, even though I don't even own a
PDP-8! :-)

 > If there is a demand I'll do other 8's or 11's front panels that use
 > the same plexiglas and silk screen technique.

Someone mentioned -12's and -15's?

That would be me.

I have one -12 with a smashed front panel, and one -15 with the nasty
XVM sticky plastic sheet front panel that would look much better with
a plexiglass replacement! The -15s I have also all have the same nasty
sticky sheet for the peripherals blinkenlights - RP15 & FP15, see
http://www.corestore.org/15-2.htm - I'd like to replace those too.

(They are a real oddity; did ANY other DEC equipment use this kind of
blinkenlights panel, with cheap nasty sticky plastic sheet instead of
plexiglass? I've never seen them anywhere except pdp-15 XVM systems)

Mike

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'
Interesting ... I was at DEC for ten years and I cannot recall having 
seen either of them.

I'll give some thought as to how to do one offs.

Rod

RE: Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

[Ali]

> Maybe this will do it?
> http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/software/dos/graphics/gds109.zip/gdsinfo
> .doc

Thanks but I had already checked that site. This card wasn't something for
the everyday user so I am not sure even how many would have been
sold/survive. The original rice of the card was $1024 to $1495 in 1991.
Although it was supposed to be a mass market device it really ended up being
a niche device for AutoCAD and X-Windows users (like other TIGA cards). The
TI Chip had excellent potential but like many other pieces of HW the
SW/driver/support was never in place from TI (and of course there was the
price barrier).

-Ali

RE: Hercules Graphic Station (HG1024) drivers or utility disks?

[Ali]

> Maybe this will do it?
> http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/software/dos/graphics/gds109.zip/gdsinfo
> .doc

Thanks but I had already checked that site. This card wasn't something for
the everyday user so I am not sure even how many would have been
sold/survive. The original rice of the card was $1024 to $1495 in 1991.
Although it was supposed to be a mass market device it really ended up being
a niche device for AutoCAD and X-Windows users (like other TIGA cards). The
TI Chip had excellent potential but like many other pieces of HW the
SW/driver/support was never in place from TI (and of course there was the
price barrier).

-Ali

Re: PDP-8/e front panels.

[Bob Rosenbloom]

On 6/7/2015 9:01 PM, Rod Smallwood wrote:



On 08/06/2015 02:51, Mike Ross wrote:
On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 1:13 AM, Noel Chiappa 
 wrote:

 > From: Rod Smallwood

 > I have recently produced a number of high quality custom 
PDP8/e front

 > panels.  They are full size reproductions of the original. The
 > production methods are exactly as used in circa 1971.

First, my sincere congratulations! This is a real contribution, and 
I doubt it

was trivial to accomplish.

 > I'll also instigate another batch of ten. .. If I get orders 
for more

 > than ten then I'll bump up the second batch size accordingly.

These sound so cool I'm tempted to buy one, even though I don't even 
own a

PDP-8! :-)

 > If there is a demand I'll do other 8's or 11's front panels 
that use

 > the same plexiglas and silk screen technique.

Someone mentioned -12's and -15's?

That would be me.

I have one -12 with a smashed front panel, and one -15 with the nasty
XVM sticky plastic sheet front panel that would look much better with
a plexiglass replacement! The -15s I have also all have the same nasty
sticky sheet for the peripherals blinkenlights - RP15 & FP15, see
http://www.corestore.org/15-2.htm - I'd like to replace those too.

(They are a real oddity; did ANY other DEC equipment use this kind of
blinkenlights panel, with cheap nasty sticky plastic sheet instead of
plexiglass? I've never seen them anywhere except pdp-15 XVM systems)

Mike

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'
Interesting ... I was at DEC for ten years and I cannot recall having 
seen either of them.

I'll give some thought as to how to do one offs.

Rod


I'd be interested in a -12 panel also. Probably the -15 too, they are 
just too beautiful and would make nice FPGA based replicas.


Bob

--
Vintage computers and electronics
www.dvq.com
www.tekmuseum.com
www.decmuseum.org

RE: Rescue update: DEC RC-25s + / was Re: DEC cartridge ID

[tony duell]

> That should be trivial. I've never laid hands on an RC25, but there
> must be a microswitch that detects when a cartridge is installed, and
> is accessible for bodging...?

Yes, and don't do it!

In every fixed/removeable drive I have worked on (OK, never an RC25, but...) 
the heads for both the fixed and removeable disks are on the same positioner
carriage. With the result that if you load the heads without a removeable 
cartridge in place, those heads will touch each other, which is a good 
way to ruin them.

-tony