Re: Line printer art: (was Re: tape baking)

[Martin Hepperle via cctalk]

For those interested in viewing those line printer files but without a
suitable printer I have hacked together a small Java program for viewing and
exporting the files. Nothing great, but it does the job.  Try SMALLCAT
first.

I understood that the first column contains FORTRANish line advance
characters, but I am not sure what the "-" means.
Nevertheless the result looks reasonable.

A zip archive with a runnable jarchive and the source can be found at:
http://www.mh-aerotools.de/downloads/LineArtPrinter.zip

Martin

Re: Mailuefterl Emulator in JavaScript

[Liam Proven via cctalk]

On 9 July 2017 at 21:45, Norbert Kehrer via cctalk
 wrote:
> The Mailuefterl (German for "may breeze", an allusion to much bigger US
> computers like "Whirlwind" or "Typhoon") was the first fully
> transistorized computer in (continental) Europe. It was built at the
> Technical University of Vienna (Austria) from 1955 to 1958 by Dr. Heinz
> Zemanek and his team. Now the machine does not work any more and can be
> seen at the technical museum in Vienna.
>
> In 2007 I wrote an emulator for this pioneering machine as a Java
> applet, and now ported it to JavaScript to make it usable again in
> modern browsers.
>
> You can try this historical computer as an emulation in your browser at
> my site at http://members.aon.at/nkehrer
>
> It contains some original and self-written code snippets to play around
> with, and I also shortly described the instruction set of this old machine.

Very impressive!

I've shared your site on the FB Vintage Computer Club group -- hope
you get a few more visitors that way. :-)

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com
Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven
UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053

Re: Manual sought - Northern Telecom Spectron D101

[John Viverito via cctalk]

Hi,

I saw your post online regarding the D-101 Datascope Manual. If you still
have copy, I'm interested. Please let me know?

 

Thank you.

 

John Viverito

Re: Line printer art: (was Re: tape baking)

[Keven Miller(rtt) via cctalk]

Thanks for the fun exercise!
Nice job. I viewed SPOCK, MOON, ASTRONAUT.

I had to recompile (at moment I'm set for java 6; and still novice at java)

"-" means triple space.

Keven Miller

- Original Message - 
From: "Martin Hepperle via cctalk" 

To: 
Sent: Mon 10 Jul 2017 05:19 AM
Subject: Re: Line printer art: (was Re: tape baking)



For those interested in viewing those line printer files but without a
suitable printer I have hacked together a small Java program for viewing 
and

exporting the files. Nothing great, but it does the job.  Try SMALLCAT
first.

I understood that the first column contains FORTRANish line advance
characters, but I am not sure what the "-" means.
Nevertheless the result looks reasonable.

A zip archive with a runnable jarchive and the source can be found at:
http://www.mh-aerotools.de/downloads/LineArtPrinter.zip

Martin

Re: Line printer art: (was Re: tape baking)

[Charles Anthony via cctalk]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 4:19 AM, Martin Hepperle via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> For those interested in viewing those line printer files but without a
> suitable printer I have hacked together a small Java program for viewing
> and
> exporting the files. Nothing great, but it does the job.  Try SMALLCAT
> first.
>
> I understood that the first column contains FORTRANish line advance
> characters, but I am not sure what the "-" means.
> Nevertheless the result looks reasonable.
>

Triple space (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASA_carriage_control_characters)

-- Charles

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Jon Elson via cctalk]

On 07/09/2017 09:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 07/09/2017 05:20 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:


I have inherited maybe 1000 tapes that I will have to sort and see
if there is any salvaging.  Not sure if they are any use, but it was
a one time opportunity to snag them.

The silly thing is that a $15 MCU with a SD card can probably handle a
Pertec interface with horsepower to spare.  You could mount an MCU
inside the drive cabinet and use it with a USB or ethernet cable--or
WiFi, if you're ambitious enough for control.   Most of the job is 5V
level shifting.
You could do a controller using the Beagle Bone black and 
the PRU devices, which are 200 MHz 32-bit microcontrollers 
built into the Bone's processor.
I used an FPGA to do a formatted Pertec interface for my CDC 
Keystone drives, but if I were to do it today, I would use 
the Beagle Bone.  The only thing I don't know how to do 
right now is to open a memory window from the PRU to main 
ARM memory to handle larger block sizes.  But, I know others 
have already done that.


Jon

code to run TX-8 Overland (was F880 ... S100) tape controller, AT bus

[jim stephens via cctalk]

On 7/9/2017 12:57 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:



I have controller and cable sets available for all of them.  There are 
linux drivers for some version of the kernel for the TX-I  The rest of 
the software runs on windows, and is good to copy and image tapes. 
I dredged up the code which I used on the Linux box.  It is for the 
TX-8, and I can let you know about it if you are interested.


I picked up the TX-8 which was referenced on the usual pay site, if 
someone was eyeing it and went "oh crap" let me know, I'll arrange to 
get it to you.  I do have the cables but not sure if my cable supply == 
my controller supply.


thanks
Jim

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

On 07/10/2017 09:15 AM, Jon Elson wrote:

> You could do a controller using the Beagle Bone black and the PRU 
> devices, which are 200 MHz 32-bit microcontrollers built into the
> Bone's processor. I used an FPGA to do a formatted Pertec interface
> for my CDC Keystone drives, but if I were to do it today, I would use
> the Beagle Bone.  The only thing I don't know how to do right now is
> to open a memory window from the PRU to main ARM memory to handle
> larger block sizes.  But, I know others have already done that.

Well, that's the thing.  I've been using the STM32F4 series of
MCUs--cheap, lots of I/Os and an integrated external memory interface.
Not super-fast; 168 MHz clock, but fast enough and 5V tolerant I/Os.

And even that approach is dated today.  Good grief--we have multicore
ARM boards like the Pi Zero for, what $5?

--Chuck

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Mark J. Blair via cctalk]

> On Jul 10, 2017, at 09:15, Jon Elson via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> You could do a controller using the Beagle Bone black and the PRU devices, 
> which are 200 MHz 32-bit microcontrollers built into the Bone's processor.

That's the scheme I have in mind for making a Pertec interface one of these 
days. Of course, that's far down on my list of projects, so I won't complain if 
somebody else gets around to it first, and shares the hardware and software 
designs.

> I used an FPGA to do a formatted Pertec interface for my CDC Keystone drives, 
> but if I were to do it today, I would use the Beagle Bone.

I was previously planning to so that, and I still think that the FPGA approach 
would feel more natural to me than using the PRUs. But the Beaglebone seems 
like a much more economical approach. I'd need a processor to control it, an SD 
card and/or USB and/or network interface to get data and commands on and off, 
and driver stacks for all of that stuff. I could also get there with a Xilinx 
Zynq family device, but at 2x or more cost vs. a BeagleBone.


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

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

On 07/10/2017 09:50 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:

> I was previously planning to so that, and I still think that the FPGA
> approach would feel more natural to me than using the PRUs. But the
> Beaglebone seems like a much more economical approach. I'd need a
> processor to control it, an SD card and/or USB and/or network
> interface to get data and commands on and off, and driver stacks for
> all of that stuff. I could also get there with a Xilinx Zynq family
> device, but at 2x or more cost vs. a BeagleBone.

I worked out an interface using an Xilinx 95108 CPLD, but again, you
still need a CPU to interface to it.  It just seems more natural, given
the I/O count on today's MCUs, to dispense with the CPLD altogether.

--Chuck

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Ian S. King via cctalk]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 10:00 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> On 07/10/2017 09:50 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:
>
> > I was previously planning to so that, and I still think that the FPGA
> > approach would feel more natural to me than using the PRUs. But the
> > Beaglebone seems like a much more economical approach. I'd need a
> > processor to control it, an SD card and/or USB and/or network
> > interface to get data and commands on and off, and driver stacks for
> > all of that stuff. I could also get there with a Xilinx Zynq family
> > device, but at 2x or more cost vs. a BeagleBone.
>
> I worked out an interface using an Xilinx 95108 CPLD, but again, you
> still need a CPU to interface to it.  It just seems more natural, given
> the I/O count on today's MCUs, to dispense with the CPLD altogether.
>
> --Chuck
>
>
>
FWIW: once upon a time I hooked up a TX-8 to a DOS PC with a network card,
ran MS LANMAN client, and had a networked F880.  I wrote a small RMT
interpreter for it, too.  -- Ian

-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School 
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

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: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Fred Cisin via cctalk]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2017, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

Well, that's the thing.  I've been using the STM32F4 series of
MCUs--cheap, lots of I/Os and an integrated external memory interface.
Not super-fast; 168 MHz clock, but fast enough and 5V tolerant I/Os.
And even that approach is dated today.  Good grief--we have multicore
ARM boards like the Pi Zero for, what $5?


But, wouldn't it be more FUN to use a 5170?

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

On 07/10/2017 01:03 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Jul 2017, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
>> Well, that's the thing.  I've been using the STM32F4 series of
>> MCUs--cheap, lots of I/Os and an integrated external memory interface.
>> Not super-fast; 168 MHz clock, but fast enough and 5V tolerant I/Os.
>> And even that approach is dated today.  Good grief--we have multicore
>> ARM boards like the Pi Zero for, what $5?
> 
> But, wouldn't it be more FUN to use a 5170?

No, it'd be a damned noisy nuisance. (I do have one).

You want retro, go buy a walking beam steam engine.

--Chuck

RE: tape baking (Rob Jarratt)

[Rich Alderson via cctalk]

From: Michael Thompson
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2017 7:41 AM

> A while ago the Living Computers: Museum + Labs borrowed my LP20 controller
> so they could clone the boards for one of their PDP-10s. Since they went
> through that effort they must have a big line printer.

LP27, specifically.  An OEM'd BP1500 from Data Products.  The LP20 lives in the
front end of the 2065 running Tops-10 v7.04.

We have other big printers on other big iron, of course.

Rich

Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
Living Computers: Museum + Labs
2245 1st Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98134

mailto:ri...@livingcomputers.org

http://www.LivingComputers.org/

IBM 5110 - Where does the character set live? And other questions.

[Robert via cctalk]

Hi folks.

I'm new here, but some of you will know me from the VCF forums, where
I go by roberttx.

I've recently picked up a 5110 (BASIC only), along with a 5114 floppy
drive and a 5103 printer. It has all the mandatory cards, but no
optional ones.

It powers on, completes its self test and gets to LOAD0, but several
of the characters are only partially drawn on the screen. The lower
case ones are in better shape than the upper case, but even some of
them are incomplete.

It's always the same characters that are mangled and it's independent
of their position on the screen, so I suspect possible corruption in
the character set, wherever in ROS or the display card it is held.

I've tried changing the country setting on the display card, to no
avail. I've also tried typing out the alphabet and copying the display
to the printer, but I think the print head is gummed up.

So, my first two questions are:

1. Can anybody tell me which card the character set is held on? None
of the manuals that I've looked at provide that info.

2. Can anybody direct me to a pdf copy of the user manual and/or the
service manual for the 5103?

Here's a link to my thread on the VCF, with pictures:
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?58583-IBM-5110-with-5114-drive-amp-5103-printer&p=467901#post467901

Thanks!

RE: Manual sought - Northern Telecom Spectron D101

[Jay West via cctalk]

John wrote...
--
I saw your post online regarding the D-101 Datascope Manual. If you still
have copy, I'm interested. Please let me know?
Thank you.
--

He must be referring to a post I had made... quite some time ago I was
looking for manuals... I did find them. I'll reply to him directly off-list.

J

Re: IBM 5110 - Where does the character set live? And other questions.

[Eric Smith via cctalk]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 1:13 PM, Robert via cctalk 
wrote:

> I've recently picked up a 5110 (BASIC only), along with a 5114 floppy
>
...

> t powers on, completes its self test and gets to LOAD0, but several
> of the characters are only partially drawn on the screen. The lower
>
...

> 1. Can anybody tell me which card the character set is held on? None
>
of the manuals that I've looked at provide that info.
>

The Maintenance Information Manual (SY31-0550) has that information. The
most relevant pages are 3-3, 3.6, and 3-35 through 3-39.

The character generator is the "Display ROS" on the display adapter card,
which is installed in the main backplane (A1) socket G.

RE: tape baking (Rob Jarratt)

[Rob Jarratt via cctalk]

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rich
> Alderson via cctalk
> Sent: 10 July 2017 20:05
> To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts' 
> Subject: RE: tape baking (Rob Jarratt)
> 
> From: Michael Thompson
> Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2017 7:41 AM
> 
> > A while ago the Living Computers: Museum + Labs borrowed my LP20
> > controller so they could clone the boards for one of their PDP-10s.
> > Since they went through that effort they must have a big line printer.
> 
> LP27, specifically.  An OEM'd BP1500 from Data Products.  The LP20 lives in 
> the
> front end of the 2065 running Tops-10 v7.04.
> 


Do you have any videos (with sound!) of the LP20 operating?

Regards

Rob

Sun sparcstation 10 keyboard

[Henry Bond via cctalk]

Are Sun keyboards of this era still in circulation or is an adaptor a
better way to go? Are these keyboards made at all well? Any and all
information is appreciated :)

 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/181822249945

I did find this on eBay, as I have been looking for video out adapter as
well? Part of me wants the original keyboard so it's a complete set.

https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/songs/song61.ogg

-H

Re: tape baking (Rob Jarratt)

[Eric Smith via cctalk]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 3:38 PM, Rob Jarratt via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Do you have any videos (with sound!) of the LP20 operating?
>

The LP20 is just the printer interface. It looks exactly the same whether
it's operating or not, and doesn't make any sound unless something is very
very wrong.

Re: Cipher F880 with S100 interface card on local CL

[Ethan Dicks via cctalk]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 12:47 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
 wrote:
> And even that approach is dated today.  Good grief--we have multicore
> ARM boards like the Pi Zero for, what $5?

Not quite - the $5 Zero is single-core.  You have to go to a Pi2 or
Pi3 to get multi-core.

Still... GHz processor _systems_ (not just bare chips) are dirt cheap.

-ethan

RE: tape baking (Rob Jarratt)

[Rob Jarratt via cctalk]

> -Original Message-
> From: Eric Smith [mailto:space...@gmail.com]
> Sent: 11 July 2017 04:02
> To: r...@jarratt.me.uk; Rob Jarratt ; General
> Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
> Cc: Rich Alderson ; General Discussion: On-Topic
> Posts 
> Subject: Re: tape baking (Rob Jarratt)
> 
> On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 3:38 PM, Rob Jarratt via cctalk
>  wrote:
> Do you have any videos (with sound!) of the LP20 operating?
> 
> The LP20 is just the printer interface. It looks exactly the same whether it's
> operating or not, and doesn't make any sound unless something is very very
> wrong.
> 


Oh! I didn't know that. The document I have on the configuration of the system 
I used says it has "One DEC LP20H line printer with a character set of 96 
characters operating at 925 lines per minute". Looks like I had not understood 
the nuance of the extra letter on the end.

Regards

Rob

RE: HP 12653A line printer interface

[CuriousMarc via cctalk]

I thought I did, but what I have is the HP 12845B Line Printer interface
card, for which I could find the documentation. Unfortunately, looking at
the schematics, it does not seem to be based on a 12566B interface. Reading
some more, it is meant for the 2607/261x series of printers, which
apparently use a narrower 7 bit interface (the 12566 is a 16 bit interface
card). But maybe you can inspire yourself from it.
Marc

-Original Message-
From: cctech [mailto:cctech-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of J. David
Bryan via cctech
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2017 2:36 PM
To: Classic Computing List
Subject: HP 12653A line printer interface

Does anyone have an HP 12653A line printer interface?

It is used to connect an HP 21xx/1000 CPU to an HP 2767A line printer.  I am
unable to find a manual for this card, but the HP "General Purpose Register
Diagnostic" manual suggests that it is a modified HP 12566B Microcircuit
interface.  I'm trying to determine what modifications were made, so that I
can model it accurately in the SIMH/HP2100 simulator.

If anyone has this card and wouldn't mind sending me high-resolution photos
of the front and back, I'd be most grateful.

  -- Dave