Re: DecServer 550 chassis
Johnny Billquist wrote: > On 2015-10-19 23:11, jwsmobile wrote: > > > > > >On 10/19/2015 12:39 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: > >>Well, you did ask for "thoughts in the conversion", so I gave you > >>mine. Sorry if you felt they were unhelpful. I just thought the > >>"conversion" was basically a no-work. Programming proms is something I > >>have spent more time than I can count on, and is so routine that I > >>don't even think about it. > >> > >I didn't mean that in disrespect. The contents of what I posted was on > >the page and I basically needed the binaries and needed some direction > >as to which went where. I appreciate you taking time to reply, but am > >coming from a lot less capability than you have. I do a lot of > >computing and the like, but I've purposely not kept up with eprom > >technology to the point that i can't reliably swear I can program them > >right now. > > > >There are only so many things one can keep up with and eproms were not > >one that was cheap to follow, and I was more into EE type devices anyway. > > Well, EPROMs are getting sortof old fashioned nowadays. > > >I may need a favor by swapping you some of my eproms (I have a 12" x 12" > >x 12" box of pulls) maybe to get you to make me a set for my board. > > Unfortunately all of my stuff in Sweden, while I nowadays live in > Switzerland. So I could only possibly help out next summer. > But I probably would have some 27256 around. > > >I've pulled out probably 500 and returned them to the original owner and > >owe him more. but I do probably have a lot of the 27xx proms. > > > >Do you think these are 27C or just straight 27 type eproms, and if so > >what speeds? That is what I need to know too. > > I normally don't care about that. The difference is in how you program > them, and there are more variations than that. Fortunately my programmer > knows a whole bunch of them, and also can autodetect the different models. > > But once they are programmed, the actual pins are the same, so speed is > the only possible issue. But I think most of them are 125ns, which is > fast enough anyway. > > I replaced the firmware in some 11/93 boards a few years ago. But I > think I just reused the existing proms that time. > > But I don't have any 11/53 boards, so I can't do that here. > > Johnny > I can do a look later this day. I've done exatly this some years before, and the KDJ11 that is working now as plain CPU isn't in a machine currently so I have it handy. As far as I remember I've used 27C256 Proms and the contents of the previous ones are on Pete's archive since they where newer then the images he had. I've updated the memory from 512K to 1,5Mb too... Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Straße 42, 09600 Oberschöna, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, i...@tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
Firing up old printers
As I gradually get my long stored collection out of boxes and onto benches I'm starting to turn my attention to a lot of old dot matrix printers I have. I seem to recall reading or hearing a very long time ago that where a printer has not been fired up for eons that the pins can be stuck in the print head (e.g. by old ink drying out) and cause damage (e.g. bend pins) when it tries to print. I'd be most grateful for any advice on anything I need to do before hitting the print command. Thank you!! ++ Kevin Parker ++
Re: PDP8 / ETOS
> From: Rick Murphy > Lots and lots of fun like that. What an space optimizer would do if > there was one. :) Wow. You did all that by hand? If so, with a program that big, wouldn't it have made sense to try and write a separate post-processor to do all those optimizations? Surely it wouldn't have been that much work, compared to going through the entire compiler output! Noel
The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1
Just learned of this via a tweet from a former colleague: « The KIM Uno is a small "open-source hardware" project to build a replica of the classic 1976 KIM-1 computer. It doubles up as a 6502 programmable calculator. It costs about $10 in commonly available parts (board & parts without case or power supply), but provides a faithful KIM-1 'experience'. An atMega328 (Arduino Pro Mini, actually) mounted on the back of the board contains all the logic and memory. » http://obsolescence.wix.com/obsolescence#!kim-uno-summary/c1uuh -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR)
Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1
On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 11:09 AM, Liam Proven wrote: > Just learned of this via a tweet from a former colleague: > > The KIM Uno is a small "open-source hardware" project to build a > replica of the classic 1976 KIM-1 computer... I've seen it (I was next to Oscar Vermeulen at VCFe and VCFmw this year). It's pretty slick and quite inexpensive. http://obsolescenceguaranteed.blogspot.ch/2014/06/kim-uno-kim-i-emulator-on-arduino-uno.html -ethan
VT100 and/or VT105 rescued from scrap
Hello list, i got hands on several VT100 and VT105 parts. It SEEMS (at least to me) to be one complete terminal without a power supply and some additional parts. I took pictures of everything, which can be seen here: https://antares.krankikom.de/index.php/s/vcIZuHbpsn3lSoL (sorry for the self-signed certificate) I already found this interesting page: https://github.com/bbenchoff/VT100Adapter, so i guess i have everything to try to repair the VT100. But i never tried something like that, and i fear to break something as soon i connect anything to power. How should i start? I especially don't know how to clean the boards, check the eproms and i'm afraid that the CRT is broken, since it has a sticky fluid on it. Bye, Lukas Kaminski
Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1
I've got one; amazing what Oscar managed to put together to sell for $10.00, not to mention the firm/soft-ware. He's also the guy behind the bitchin RasPi-powered PDP-8/I replica: http://obsolescence.wix.com/obsolescence#!pidp-8-overview/c252u m - Original Message - From: "Ethan Dicks" To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 11:44 AM Subject: Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1 On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 11:09 AM, Liam Proven wrote: Just learned of this via a tweet from a former colleague: The KIM Uno is a small "open-source hardware" project to build a replica of the classic 1976 KIM-1 computer... I've seen it (I was next to Oscar Vermeulen at VCFe and VCFmw this year). It's pretty slick and quite inexpensive. http://obsolescenceguaranteed.blogspot.ch/2014/06/kim-uno-kim-i-emulator-on-arduino-uno.html -ethan
Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1
Funny thing that this gets mentioned... I spent a couple of hours last night putting a Kim-Uno together from Oscar's kit. (I had bought it way back in the spring) Works like a charm - only had time to go through some basic testing - no programming yet. Nicely done project on Oscar's part. Everyone should have one! I ordered an RS232 to TTL board this AM - it somehow does not feel 'right' to connect it to a computer via USBserial. I'd like to also figure out what to do/how to work the expansion connector, so I can hook it up to a breadboard and do some I/O. Which probably means a bigger case... I have Oscar's PiDP 8 kit as well, which is awaiting assembly... cheers -- alex - Original Message - > From: "Mike Stein" > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 9:17:49 AM > Subject: Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1 > > I've got one; amazing what Oscar managed to put > together to sell for $10.00, not to mention the > firm/soft-ware.
Vintage BBC Computer gets FPGA Buddies
« The BBC Microcomputer System (or BBC Micro) was an innovative machine back in the early 1980’s. One feature that impressed reviewers was a “tube” interface that allowed the machine to become an I/O processor for an additional CPU. When the onboard 6502 became too slow, it could become a slave to a Z-80 or even an ARM processor. The bus was actually useful for any high-speed device, but its purpose was to add new processors, a feature Byte magazine called “innovative.” [Hoglet67] has released a very interesting set of FPGA designs that allows a small board sporting a Xilinx Spartan 3 to add a 6502, a Z80, a 6809, or a PDP/11 to a BBC Micro via the tube interface. There’s something satisfying about a classic computer acting as an I/O slave to a fairly modern FPGA that implements an even older PDP/11. » http://hackaday.com/2015/10/03/vintage-bbc-computer-gets-fpga-buddies/ -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR)
Re: Firing up old printers
On 10/20/2015 02:12 AM, Kevin Parker wrote: I seem to recall reading or hearing a very long time ago that where a printer has not been fired up for eons that the pins can be stuck in the print head (e.g. by old ink drying out) and cause damage (e.g. bend pins) when it tries to print. It depends on what you're using for a ribbon. My only dot-matrix printers are multi-pass NLQ jobs that use film ribbon. Since the "ink" is on the paper side of the ribbon only, the printheads stay clean. A traditional cloth ribbon, however, will and does contaminate the printhead with ink (and dust). The cleaner of choice has, to the best of my knowledge, always been isoporpanol (isopropyl alcohol). Use a small brush (e.g. toothbrush) to scrub any ink from the face of the printhead. You can soak the printhead end if necessary. Make sure that the carriage rails are free of dirt and grease. Lubricate carriage cables. Unless you're a masochist, try not to disassemble the printhead. If you are forced to, do so over a tray or cloth--there are lots of little parts--and springs that can get lost. Keep in mind that there are still many service outlets for dot-matrix printers, as they're still used in POS applications. --Chuck
Announcing TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS
About four months since I last announced anything. There have been various development since, and I figured I should encourage people who are using BQTCP/IP for RSX to upgrade to the latest release. A short list of changes: TCP: . Small bugfixes in various states. . Bugfix in window handling. TCP reception could occasionally accept data outside of window. . Added ability to dynamically change transmit and receive buffer size. . Bugfix. SYN packets could result in lost pool if sockets were closed with outstanding SYN packets queued. . Bugfix. If pool is full, system could crash on incoming connections. FTP: . Added SUMMARY, PROMPT, MGET and MPUT commands. . Improved filename parsing and handling for mapping between local and remote filenames. . Bugfix. FTP would abort if a long file transfer took place, since the command channel had a timeout. . Much improved progress line for file transfers, including ETA and delta between updates. FTPD: . Bugfix. If a file transfer was followed by an immediate close of the connection, the file could be left in a locked state. . Expanded time stamp information in directory listings to include seconds. TELNET: . Bugfix in telnet options processing. TELNETD: . Bugfix in telnet options processing. IFCONFIG: . Added commands for setting default and maximum allowed tcp transmit and receive buffer sizes. RMD: . Added information on task page about UDP connections. TRACERT: . Added /NUMERIC switch As usual, the distribution is available from: ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.dsk ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.tap ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip/tcpip.dsk The documentation is also available through ftp on Mim, or also at http://mim.update.uu.se/tcpipdoc I believe the state of the code is now good enough that I expect there will be fewer updates to the basic networking drivers in the future. I plan to find some new protocols to work on next, and also improve some of the current clients and servers as the need arises. (On a different note, Madame.Update.UU.SE is now a CNAME for Mim.Update.UU.SE, making the naming of the machine consistent between DECnet and TCP/IP, in case someone wonders why the name have changed...) Johnny
Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1
-Oorspronkelijk bericht- From: Mike Stein Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 6:17 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1 I've got one; amazing what Oscar managed to put together to sell for $10.00, not to mention the firm/soft-ware. He's also the guy behind the bitchin RasPi-powered PDP-8/I replica: http://obsolescence.wix.com/obsolescence#!pidp-8-overview/c252u m - Original Message - From: "Ethan Dicks" To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 11:44 AM Subject: Re: The KIM Uno -- a modern clone of the KIM-1 On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 11:09 AM, Liam Proven wrote: Just learned of this via a tweet from a former colleague: The KIM Uno is a small "open-source hardware" project to build a replica of the classic 1976 KIM-1 computer... I've seen it (I was next to Oscar Vermeulen at VCFe and VCFmw this year). It's pretty slick and quite inexpensive. http://obsolescenceguaranteed.blogspot.ch/2014/06/kim-uno-kim-i-emulator-on-arduino-uno.html -ethan = Oscar is already working on another very promising product. In December he is coming to Holland to visit family. He will also pay a visit to my "museum" to take a few measurements. Sorry, can't say more, I'll leave that up to Oscar. Perhaps he want to stay "below the radar" until that project is finished ... - Henk, PA8PDP
Re: Data General NOVA 4/C help
With thanks to Bruce, Jay and Rod, good news, although something has gone wrong first. Learned a few things! Long story ... As I did not see anything on the Dasher D200 terminal screen, I first checked the cable, assuming that the terminal did not develop issues in the years being stored in the attic. The cable checked out fine, and thus I now know which wires are RxD and TxD (the cable is just 3 wires, no hardware handshake). After connecting TxD to RxD anything typed on the keyboard appears on the screen. So indeed, the terminal is OK. Moving to the "UNIVERSAL LINE MULTIPLEXER PADDLE BD". Lots of wires are soldered to this paddle board, but as far as I can see none of those wires goes to any pin of the card edge connectors of slot #1, the NOVA processor. I figured that perhaps traces on the backplane lead from slot #1 to another slot, so I had a better look at the paddle board. It has 5 identical rows of pins. Each row is 13 pins with pin 4 (or 10 depending where you start counting) removed. Long story short, I did not see any signals on any pin when the NOVA is reset. Using the doc that I got from Bruce (tnx agn!) I tried to find signals or voltage levels that might be something "RS-232-ish". Hooked up two thin test wires (with small hooks). One on GND, the other on the pin that would carry TxD. Stepping to the front of the computer, where I could press the RESET button, and look at the scope screen. RESET ... nothing, bummer. Back to the rear side of the computer to hook up another pin ... smoke! Smoke was coming from the GND test hook. Power off! The hook plastic was molten and that produced the smoke. I could remove the hook from the pin, but the hook is gone and the test hook is gone. What went wrong? After a few minutes I came to the conclusion that the pin that I assumed to be GND was not GND, but something else, and most likely a power supply pin. Looking again at the schematic drawing, I saw my error :-/ The NOVA has two card edge connectors, seeing from the rear, the left connector is "A" and the right connector is "B". Further, each connector has two rows of pins. In my ignorance of DG, I thought that the top row of pins was "A", and the bottom row of pins is row "B". And each row has 100 pins ... dumb, dumb! A simple count from 1 up, would have shown that one row has only 50 pins! Each connector has all *odd* pins on the upper row and all *even* pins on the bottom row. S, what I thought to be B99 (=GND) is actually pin A98, and that is +5V. It is a good thing that my test leads and hooks are small, so in case of high currents the power supply will "win", the hook/wire "loose". As the computer did not do anything "different", I hoped the power supply could handle the "semi" short circuit. With the new insight of how you should count the pins, I had another look at the BERG header. The GND, RxD and TxD aligned with appropriate pins on the top row, last series of pins of connector A. It could well be that the connector (as it was hooked up when I picked up the machine) was not correct! Also, I seem to remember the system originally had *two* D200s, but I got only one terminal. Possibly the hooked up terminal was "the other terminal", not the console terminal ... and the console terminal would have been connected on the pins of connector A slot #1. H, let's try that. The signals would match as the RxD pin of the terminal would connect to backplane pin A85 which is TxD, etc. Another long story short ... :-) Terminal on, waiting until the screen shows some background light, then NOVA on (the rest stays off). Hurray! I see an "O" appearing on the screen and a second or so later, the letter "K" and on the next line "!00" and another line with "!" This is exactly what should happen. Getting bold now. Trying to boot from disk. So, I switched on the disk drive. With my ear against the front panel, I can hear a sound that could be a spindle drive. Then a rather loud "humming", a "click", the humming stops and then I can still hear the spindle ... but the READY LED is on. So, I RESET the NOVA. "OK !00 !", but that's all, no joy. "OK", let's try the floppy disk. I removed the front panel to switch the floppy drive to be the boot device ... it already is the boot device! No wonder that nothing happened, because I had no floppy in the drive! Inserted the "startup" floppy ... nope, no good. As the front cover was removed and the disk was spinning (I assumed), I set the switch in the other position so that the hard disk is boot device. RESET the NOVA again. The READY LED flashes a few times and I get the text "FILENAME ?" on the screen! I guess that the startup automatically starts the accounting application as that program asks for a (customer) account file to be opened. I had a glance over the doc that came with the system, so I "knew" a file name that I could enter ... DOSINIT. That worked! However, the program asks for a drive identifier. Not knowing what could happen (wipe di
RE: Firing up old printers
> > I seem to recall reading or hearing a very long time ago that where a > printer has not been fired up for eons that the pins can be stuck in the > print head (e.g. by old ink drying out) and cause damage (e.g. bend pins) > when it tries to print. A word of warning. Unless you really know what you are doing, do not dismantle a dot matrix printhead. Many of them were initially made with pins that were longer than the finished ones, the head was assembled and the pins cut and ground to the correct length. If you take it apart you will never get the pins back in the guides correctly. A few can be taken apart. One early Epson one (also used in the Commodore 2023, etc) will split into two parts, the pins in their guide and the solenoid assembly. The latter can be stripped, but don't be tempted to unclip the back end of the former! The Teletype Model 43 printhed can be taken apart, the method is documented in the service manual. Sanders 12/7 and 700 printheads are quite easy to take apart (but keep the pin/armature assemblies in order). Other than those, I wouldn't strip any of them! Maybe clean the face with propan-2-ol and then soak that end in the same solvent to remove any residual ink.. -tony
Re: VT100 and/or VT105 rescued from scrap
I can't seem to get the link to work with the pictures, so I don't know what the tube looks like, but sticky fluid is NOT an indication of a problem with the tube. Some tubes used a bonded safety glass, and that goo leaks out over time. But I've never seen a VT100 with such a tube installed. The most common cause of goo on the tube is going to be goo surrounding the 2nd anode connection (the suction cup). This is the plasticizers leeching out of the anode wiring, and gooing up the tube. The cable will be all sticky too. You can clean it off, I find that brake cleaner will dissolve it nicely. Just clean the area around the connection, don't clean the graphite coating off the main parts of the back of the tube - scrub only the clear glass areas. Without knowing what parts you have, I can't really tell you more than that, but, in general, I find that VT100's tend to work fine. There's nothing special I would do, just hook everything up and try it out. You're not going to blow anything up, assuming you've got parts connected properly. -Ian On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Lukas Kaminski wrote: > Hello list, > > i got hands on several VT100 and VT105 parts. It SEEMS (at least to me) > to be one complete terminal without a power supply and some additional > parts. I took pictures of everything, which can be seen here: > https://antares.krankikom.de/index.php/s/vcIZuHbpsn3lSoL > (sorry for the self-signed certificate) > > I already found this interesting page: > https://github.com/bbenchoff/VT100Adapter, so i guess i have everything > to try to repair the VT100. > > But i never tried something like that, and i fear to break something as > soon i connect anything to power. > > How should i start? I especially don't know how to clean the boards, > check the eproms and i'm afraid that the CRT is broken, since it has a > sticky fluid on it. > > Bye, > > Lukas Kaminski
Re: VT100 and/or VT105 rescued from scrap
Congratulations! My own VT131 is on the repair line so I'll be watching this thread with some interest. Best, Sean On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 5:12 PM, Ian Primus wrote: > I can't seem to get the link to work with the pictures, so I don't > know what the tube looks like, but sticky fluid is NOT an indication > of a problem with the tube. Some tubes used a bonded safety glass, and > that goo leaks out over time. But I've never seen a VT100 with such a > tube installed. The most common cause of goo on the tube is going to > be goo surrounding the 2nd anode connection (the suction cup). This is > the plasticizers leeching out of the anode wiring, and gooing up the > tube. The cable will be all sticky too. You can clean it off, I find > that brake cleaner will dissolve it nicely. Just clean the area around > the connection, don't clean the graphite coating off the main parts of > the back of the tube - scrub only the clear glass areas. > > Without knowing what parts you have, I can't really tell you more than > that, but, in general, I find that VT100's tend to work fine. There's > nothing special I would do, just hook everything up and try it out. > You're not going to blow anything up, assuming you've got parts > connected properly. > > -Ian > > On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Lukas Kaminski > wrote: > > Hello list, > > > > i got hands on several VT100 and VT105 parts. It SEEMS (at least to me) > > to be one complete terminal without a power supply and some additional > > parts. I took pictures of everything, which can be seen here: > > https://antares.krankikom.de/index.php/s/vcIZuHbpsn3lSoL > > (sorry for the self-signed certificate) > > > > I already found this interesting page: > > https://github.com/bbenchoff/VT100Adapter, so i guess i have everything > > to try to repair the VT100. > > > > But i never tried something like that, and i fear to break something as > > soon i connect anything to power. > > > > How should i start? I especially don't know how to clean the boards, > > check the eproms and i'm afraid that the CRT is broken, since it has a > > sticky fluid on it. > > > > Bye, > > > > Lukas Kaminski >
Re: Data General NOVA 4/C help
On 10/20/2015 2:45 PM, Henk Gooijen wrote: > With thanks to Bruce, Jay and Rod, good news, although something > has gone wrong first. Learned a few things! Long story ... > > As I did not see anything on the Dasher D200 terminal screen, I first > checked the cable, assuming that the terminal did not develop issues > in the years being stored in the attic. > The cable checked out fine, and thus I now know which wires are RxD > and TxD (the cable is just 3 wires, no hardware handshake). > After connecting TxD to RxD anything typed on the keyboard appears on > the screen. So indeed, the terminal is OK. > > Moving to the "UNIVERSAL LINE MULTIPLEXER PADDLE BD". Lots of wires are > soldered to this paddle board, but as far as I can see none of those > wires goes to any pin of the card edge connectors of slot #1, the NOVA > processor. I figured that perhaps traces on the backplane lead from > slot #1 to another slot, so I had a better look at the paddle board. > It has 5 identical rows of pins. Each row is 13 pins with pin 4 (or 10 > depending where you start counting) removed. > Long story short, I did not see any signals on any pin when the NOVA is > reset. > > Using the doc that I got from Bruce (tnx agn!) I tried to find signals > or voltage levels that might be something "RS-232-ish". > Hooked up two thin test wires (with small hooks). One on GND, the other > on the pin that would carry TxD. Stepping to the front of the computer, > where I could press the RESET button, and look at the scope screen. > RESET ... nothing, bummer. > Back to the rear side of the computer to hook up another pin ... smoke! > Smoke was coming from the GND test hook. Power off! > > The hook plastic was molten and that produced the smoke. I could remove > the hook from the pin, but the hook is gone and the test hook is gone. > What went wrong? > After a few minutes I came to the conclusion that the pin that I assumed > to be GND was not GND, but something else, and most likely a power supply > pin. Looking again at the schematic drawing, I saw my error :-/ > > The NOVA has two card edge connectors, seeing from the rear, the left > connector is "A" and the right connector is "B". Further, each connector > has two rows of pins. In my ignorance of DG, I thought that the top row > of pins was "A", and the bottom row of pins is row "B". And each row has > 100 pins ... dumb, dumb! > A simple count from 1 up, would have shown that one row has only 50 pins! > Each connector has all *odd* pins on the upper row and all *even* pins on > the bottom row. > S, what I thought to be B99 (=GND) is actually pin A98, and that is > +5V. It is a good thing that my test leads and hooks are small, so in > case of high currents the power supply will "win", the hook/wire "loose". > As the computer did not do anything "different", I hoped the power supply > could handle the "semi" short circuit. > > With the new insight of how you should count the pins, I had another look > at the BERG header. The GND, RxD and TxD aligned with appropriate pins on > the top row, last series of pins of connector A. It could well be that > the connector (as it was hooked up when I picked up the machine) was not > correct! Also, I seem to remember the system originally had *two* D200s, > but I got only one terminal. Possibly the hooked up terminal was "the > other terminal", not the console terminal ... and the console terminal > would have been connected on the pins of connector A slot #1. > H, let's try that. The signals would match as the RxD pin of the > terminal would connect to backplane pin A85 which is TxD, etc. > Another long story short ... :-) > Terminal on, waiting until the screen shows some background light, then > NOVA on (the rest stays off). Hurray! I see an "O" appearing on the > screen and a second or so later, the letter "K" and on the next line > "!00" and another line with "!" This is exactly what should happen. > > Getting bold now. Trying to boot from disk. So, I switched on the disk > drive. With my ear against the front panel, I can hear a sound that could > be a spindle drive. Then a rather loud "humming", a "click", the humming > stops and then I can still hear the spindle ... but the READY LED is on. > So, I RESET the NOVA. "OK !00 !", but that's all, no joy. "OK", let's > try the floppy disk. I removed the front panel to switch the floppy drive > to be the boot device ... it already is the boot device! No wonder that > nothing happened, because I had no floppy in the drive! Inserted the > "startup" floppy ... nope, no good. As the front cover was removed and > the disk was spinning (I assumed), I set the switch in the other position > so that the hard disk is boot device. RESET the NOVA again. The READY > LED flashes a few times and I get the text "FILENAME ?" on the screen! > > I guess that the startup automatically starts the accounting application > as that program asks for a (customer) account file to be opened. > I ha
Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?
On 10/20/2015 1:35 PM, Christian Liendo wrote: > I found a channel that's about a Month old, but no real information as to who > they are. > > > Computer History Archives > Educational Vintage Computer Films > View on www.youtube.com > > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOyJD0RHtF_77_oAf5tT1nQ > Nice narration... JRJ
RE: Is it live [WAS:RE: Oddball floppies for trade - 8", HS (outer edge), weird cutout]
As it turns out the ownership of the Ella tapes is uncertain so Imation/Memorex can't use them without a fight. But there were several other artists, along with the breaking glass that can be used. Imation paid $300 million for the brand - shows the power of a brand. tom -Original Message- From: Al Kossow [mailto:a...@bitsavers.org] Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 10:20 AM To: cctalk@classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Oddball floppies for trade - 8", HS (outer edge), weird cutout On 10/18/15 6:00 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: > it's truly amazing that Memorex still exists--as a brand of Imation. > Thank Ella Fitzgerald "Is it live, or is it Memorex" http://www.totalmedia.com/content/trivia-and-tips/maxells-chair-man-hell-blow-you-away-part-1.html
Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?
On 10/20/15 11:35 AM, Christian Liendo wrote: I found a channel that's about a Month old, but no real information as to who they are. Computer History Archives Educational Vintage Computer Films I think it is a guy in Sacramento. I remember buying a CD of the 1050 film off ebay years ago and I think that was what he was going by then.
Re: Firing up old printers
tis 2015-10-20 klockan 19:52 + skrev tony duell: > > Sanders 12/7 and 700 printheads are quite easy to take apart (but > keep the > pin/armature assemblies in order). > > Other than those, I wouldn't strip any of them! > > Maybe clean the face with propan-2-ol and then soak that end in the > same solvent to > remove any residual ink.. Old Epson fx-80 ? (I do have a Digital wide carriage one , matched to a DEC 380 Pro.)
Re: VT100 and/or VT105 rescued from scrap
> On 20 October 2015 at 22:12 Ian Primus wrote: > > > I can't seem to get the link to work with the pictures, so I don't > know what the tube looks like, but sticky fluid is NOT an indication > of a problem with the tube. Some tubes used a bonded safety glass, and > that goo leaks out over time. But I've never seen a VT100 with such a > tube installed. The most common cause of goo on the tube is going to > be goo surrounding the 2nd anode connection (the suction cup). This is > the plasticizers leeching out of the anode wiring, and gooing up the > tube. The cable will be all sticky too. You can clean it off, I find > that brake cleaner will dissolve it nicely. Just clean the area around > the connection, don't clean the graphite coating off the main parts of > the back of the tube - scrub only the clear glass areas. > > Without knowing what parts you have, I can't really tell you more than > that, but, in general, I find that VT100's tend to work fine. There's > nothing special I would do, just hook everything up and try it out. > You're not going to blow anything up, assuming you've got parts > connected properly. > > -Ian > > On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Lukas Kaminski > wrote: > > Hello list, > > > > i got hands on several VT100 and VT105 parts. It SEEMS (at least to me) > > to be one complete terminal without a power supply and some additional > > parts. I took pictures of everything, which can be seen here: > > https://antares.krankikom.de/index.php/s/vcIZuHbpsn3lSoL > > (sorry for the self-signed certificate) > > > > I already found this interesting page: > > https://github.com/bbenchoff/VT100Adapter, so i guess i have everything > > to try to repair the VT100. > > > > But i never tried something like that, and i fear to break something as > > soon i connect anything to power. > > > > How should i start? I especially don't know how to clean the boards, > > check the eproms and i'm afraid that the CRT is broken, since it has a > > sticky fluid on it. > > > > Bye, > > > > Lukas Kaminski I couldn't get the link to work either, I could only get parts of the images. I too saw leakage from around the anode cap. I have been advised to get all that cleaned up (isopropyl will do I think), and then, iirc, re-grease the anode cap, although I am not at home to check and I can't remember what kind of grease you need to use for that. I would be careful about just powering it on in case there is something bad somewhere that blows a component that can't be replaced (I believe flyback transformers fall into that category). So I would check all the PSU and video control board electrolytic capacitors in particular, and probably re-form them. I would also use a dummy load to test the PSU to make sure it is producing the right voltages without too much ripple. Once all that checks out, I would power it up one part at a time, leaving the video control board to last but one, and then the tube (and flyback) to last. At least, this is what I did, and suffered no ill effects, although I did have to re-cap the video control board to stop a screen wobble. My VT101 and VT102 were one of my rare successes, with a lot of help from another list member though! Regards Rob
Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?
On Tuesday (10/20/2015 at 04:57PM -0500), Jay Jaeger wrote: > On 10/20/2015 1:35 PM, Christian Liendo wrote: > > I found a channel that's about a Month old, but no real information as to > > who they are. > > > > > > Computer History Archives > > Educational Vintage Computer Films > > View on www.youtube.com > > > > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOyJD0RHtF_77_oAf5tT1nQ > > > > Nice narration... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KuoZ6cades I have two Vicalloy tapes from a UNIVAC I. Anybody have a UNISERVO drive we could read them on? ;-) Chris -- Chris Elmquist
Re: Firing up old printers
I thought Fedron was the go-to solvent for the printing / ink industry? It's also used to clean rubber parts, iirc. Interesting point about the single-side vs. trad. cloth ribbons. I'm using a cheap-o replacement in my Panasonic "Quiet" Color KXT 24-pin (NLQ). I don't recall what ribbon was in it when it arrived, other than it was totally shot. I only use black ribbons, the color are no use to me - and terribly expensive. It's an excellent printer, as nice as any I have ever used or owned, and very compatible with the popular C-64 interfaces. Are we really cruisin' for a brusin' using cheap ribbons in this machine? Fwiw, it sees little, but occasional use - not sure if that's good or bad! ;-) -Bill On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 5:18 PM, Stefan Skoglund (lokal < stefan.skogl...@agj.net> wrote: > tis 2015-10-20 klockan 19:52 + skrev tony duell: > > > > > Sanders 12/7 and 700 printheads are quite easy to take apart (but > > keep the > > pin/armature assemblies in order). > > > > Other than those, I wouldn't strip any of them! > > > > Maybe clean the face with propan-2-ol and then soak that end in the > > same solvent to > > remove any residual ink.. > > > Old Epson fx-80 ? > > (I do have a Digital wide carriage one , matched to a DEC 380 Pro.) >
Re: Firing up old printers
On 10/20/2015 04:18 PM, drlegendre . wrote: I thought Fedron was the go-to solvent for the printing / ink industry? It's also used to clean rubber parts, iirc. I demurred on Fedron as it contains xylol. Some print heads have plastic parts and I'm not sure how it would affect those--it's also a paint/lacquer solvent. Same situation for toluol. Alky seems to be the mildest of the lot. Freon TF would, of course, be my choice... Interesting point about the single-side vs. trad. cloth ribbons. I'm using a cheap-o replacement in my Panasonic "Quiet" Color KXT 24-pin (NLQ). I don't recall what ribbon was in it when it arrived, other than it was totally shot. I only use black ribbons, the color are no use to me - and terribly expensive. The film ribbons are single-pass only--there's a supply spool in the cartridge. Once the supply side is gone into the stuffer box--it's gone. I've found that plain IBM typewriter film ribbon works to refill the HP-style carts. I don't care much for multicolor ribbons. They're great on the first pass, but then the colors get contaminated with the ink left on the printhead. After awhile, the yellow turns to a dirty yellow color. --Chuck
Re: PDP8 / ETOS
At 06:47 AM 10/20/2015, Noel Chiappa wrote: > From: Rick Murphy > Lots and lots of fun like that. What an space optimizer would do if > there was one. :) Wow. You did all that by hand? Yup. Lots of work. That's kind of why I find the implication that I don't know what's going on here somewhat disconcerting. :) If so, with a program that big, wouldn't it have made sense to try and write a separate post-processor to do all those optimizations? Surely it wouldn't have been that much work, compared to going through the entire compiler output! As with most things, it initially looked to be more work to write something to parse the code and optimize it. Some of the work was pretty much rote, but a lot of it took some judgement to find more compact code. It wasn't until I described the effort that I actually considered calling it "space optimization". Oh, and some of this was painfully impacted by the limits of the compiler symbol table sizes, thus a lot of constants don't get meaningful names. Ugh. I wouldn't have volunteered for this. I still want to get it to the point where 28K is possible, but that'll take a new optimization that I haven't yet thought of. :) Basically, at this point, it's really a FPP assembler version of Adventure slightly assisted by the Fortran compiler. I'm pretty proud of the idle loop blinkenlights, though. Looks good on my PiDP-8. -Rick
Re: VT100 and/or VT105 rescued from scrap
I have most of the VT100 family parts, and can help somewhat in identifying part numbers. If you need any, feel free to contact me off list. Paul On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 11:11 AM, Lukas Kaminski < lukas.kamin...@krankikom.de> wrote: > Hello list, > > i got hands on several VT100 and VT105 parts. It SEEMS (at least to me) > to be one complete terminal without a power supply and some additional > parts. I took pictures of everything, which can be seen here: > https://antares.krankikom.de/index.php/s/vcIZuHbpsn3lSoL > (sorry for the self-signed certificate) > > I already found this interesting page: > https://github.com/bbenchoff/VT100Adapter, so i guess i have everything > to try to repair the VT100. > > But i never tried something like that, and i fear to break something as > soon i connect anything to power. > > How should i start? I especially don't know how to clean the boards, > check the eproms and i'm afraid that the CRT is broken, since it has a > sticky fluid on it. > > Bye, > > Lukas Kaminski >
Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?
On 10/20/2015 05:39 PM, Chris Elmquist wrote: I watched the IBM 360 one (17 minutes) it had some GREAT pictures of making SLT modules and core planes. They had a machine in the pictures that I didn't recognize. It had a black front panel and a long row of address dials, no switches. It might have been a stripped-down version of what eventually became the 360/22, /25, or maybe /30, but it didn't seem to really just be a version of one of those just in black. The same machine is shown a number of times at the end of the video. Anybody know? Jon
Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?
On 2015-10-20 11:34 PM, Jon Elson wrote: On 10/20/2015 05:39 PM, Chris Elmquist wrote: I watched the IBM 360 one (17 minutes) it had some GREAT pictures of making SLT modules and core planes. They had a machine in the pictures that I didn't recognize. It had a black front panel and a long row of address dials, no switches. It might have been a stripped-down version of what eventually became the 360/22, /25, or maybe /30, but it didn't seem to really just be a version of one of those just in black. The same machine is shown a number of times at the end of the video. Anybody know? Jon Well since this film is reputed to have come along in 1964, we can probably rule out 22 and 25 since they came along later and the front panel looks quite different from a model 30. The panel also looks flat unlike any I have seen. Perhaps it is just a mock up that was used in the production of the film. Paul.
360 mockups Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?
Original Message Subject: Re: Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project? From:"Jon Elson" Date:Wed, October 21, 2015 12:34 pm To: gene...@classiccmp.org "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" -- > On 10/20/2015 05:39 PM, Chris Elmquist wrote: > I watched the IBM 360 one (17 minutes) it had some GREAT > pictures of making SLT modules and core planes. > > They had a machine in the pictures that I didn't recognize. > It had a black front panel and a long row of address dials, > no switches. It might have been a stripped-down version of > what eventually became the 360/22, /25, or maybe /30, but it > didn't seem to really just be a version of one of those just > in black. The same machine is shown a number of times at > the end of the video. Anybody know? > > Jon > Great film. I'm sure there are a few mockups in there. For instance, towards the end at 17:23 there is a mockup of a console with a slim white/black masthead. I have a high-res copy of that photo, and here is a the lower right corner detail enlarged: http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/IBM_System_360_mockup_enlarged.jpg You can see a chip out of the console panel that looks like particle board, and there are no cutouts for the button 'inserts' - they appear glued on. (By the way - I'm looking for a red INTERRUPT insert, red STOP insert and pearl POWER ON insert for my 360/40 console, if anyone can help :) Steve.
