sun 88780 on ebay

[Jeff Woolsey via cctalk]

*Eric Smith *writes:

> On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 11:18 AM Al Kossow  > wrote:
>
> >/Does it have the 800 bpi option board? />//
> I haven't yet unboxed it. I took photos of the outside of the destroyed box
> to send to the shipper. The front bottom left corner of the 88780 is
> visible through a hole in the box, and is visibly mangled.
>
I acquired mine as a piece of decommissioned hardware where I worked. 
It came home with me in my car.

Some time later (mid 90s) I loaned it to a friend for some contract work
at .  I drove it up
there and delivered it on a cart.  The stars, however, did not align for
getting it back to me the same way so they shipped it to me where I
worked.  There was some damage to the plastic front cover and control
panel mounts.  I was able to repair or work around most of it, and the
unit still works fine to this day. (Well, the plastic take-up reel is
loose...)

Pretty much everything I have that could go in a rack I fetched myself
rather than having it shipped to me.  While one can't always do that, I
recently carted home an HP 3455A multimeter from Los Angeles, some 400
miles.  I was already in the area, otherwise I don't think I'd've made
the round trip just for it.

> Based on the service manual, it appears that option 800 requires:
> * buffer PCA 07980-6xx14 (512K) or 07980-6xx34 (1M)
> * read/write/formatter PCA 07980-6xx31
>
Mine has the 800 bpi option.  Not by inspection, but by operation.

-- 
Jeff Woolsey {{woolsey,jlw}@jlw,first.last@{gmail,jlw}}.com
Nature abhors straight antennas, clean lenses, and empty storage.
"Delete! Delete! OK!" -Dr. Bronner on disk space management
Card-sorting, Joel.  -Crow on solitaire

Re: sun 88780 on ebay

[Nemo via cctalk]

On 11/02/2019, Eric Smith via cctalk  wrote (in part):
> I haven't yet unboxed it. I took photos of the outside of the destroyed box
> to send to the shipper. The front bottom left corner of the 88780 is
> visible through a hole in the box, and is visibly mangled.

Who was the seller?  (The ebay link did not list the seller.)

N.

Re: Wirewrap DIP sockets - any interest?

[Jon Elson via cctalk]

On 02/11/2019 06:25 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:

What is the gold value?


ARRgh!  Not more than a few milligrams per the usual DIP 
sockets. Likely not worth the trouble of grinding them up to 
extract the gold from all that base metal.


Jon

Re: Wirewrap DIP sockets - any interest?

[William Donzelli via cctalk]

> ARRgh!  Not more than a few milligrams per the usual DIP
> sockets. Likely not worth the trouble of grinding them up to
> extract the gold from all that base metal.

A lot of precious metal scrappers have wildly differing opinions on that.

--
Will

Re: Wirewrap DIP sockets - any interest?

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

On 2/12/19 8:30 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
> On 02/11/2019 06:25 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
>> What is the gold value?
>>
>>
> ARRgh!  Not more than a few milligrams per the usual DIP sockets. Likely
> not worth the trouble of grinding them up to extract the gold from all
> that base metal.

Of late (the last 20 years or so), I've turned to drilling single-sided
PCB for socket patterns and using the push-in ww pins.  Makes for a much
neater project with a good ground plane.

--Chuck

Re: Wirewrap DIP sockets - any interest?

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Feb 12, 2019, at 11:56 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 2/12/19 8:30 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
>> On 02/11/2019 06:25 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
>>> What is the gold value?
>>> 
>>> 
>> ARRgh!  Not more than a few milligrams per the usual DIP sockets. Likely
>> not worth the trouble of grinding them up to extract the gold from all
>> that base metal.
> 
> Of late (the last 20 years or so), I've turned to drilling single-sided
> PCB for socket patterns and using the push-in ww pins.  Makes for a much
> neater project with a good ground plane.

And people would make WW panels that way.  I have a small one that's just rows 
of push-in pins like that (with pins 7 and 14 bused to power buses).  From 
Augat, I think.

paul

Re: Wirewrap DIP sockets - any interest?

[Al Kossow via cctalk]

On 2/12/19 8:43 AM, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote:

> A lot of precious metal scrappers have wildly differing opinions on that.
> 

And there are a lot of dreamers out there too

I had 1.8 lbs of 1970's bell labs wire wrap pins up on ebay for a while, 
someone in texas assayed a few
and claimed there was only $200 worth of gold in them

I also could only get maybe $200 for 9u wire-wrap panels with over 3000 pins on 
them

Re: Wirewrap DIP sockets - any interest?

[William Donzelli via cctalk]

So I received many requests for WW sockets - more than I thought I
would - so I am going to pick two people at random to deal with. If
you do not hear from me, do not despair - if either of the two I
originally picked flakes out or something, you may get reselected!

Anyway, the sockets are likely not going to the scrap!

--
Will


On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 3:25 PM William Donzelli  wrote:
>
> Does anyone here still actively wire wrap circuits? I am thinking
> about dumping my inventory of nice machine pin wirewrap sockets.
> Lately they have been selling like lead balloons.
>
> Contact me off list.
>
> --
> Will, in the Hudson Valley

Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers

[Ethan Dicks via cctalk]

On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 10:08 AM Phil Pemberton via cctalk
 wrote:
> Does anyone have copies of any of the following -- or any other C
> compilers for the 68K which were around at that time?
>
>* Lattice C

Entirely randomly, I just opened a box I received today.  Expected in
the box was the DEC Rainbow.  Unexpected was an original box of
Lattice C 2.15 for 8086 - docs and original floppies plus safety
backups.   Also a surprise - it's all in a Lifeboat Associates binder.

-ethan

Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers

[Warner Losh via cctalk]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 2:55 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 10:08 AM Phil Pemberton via cctalk
>  wrote:
> > Does anyone have copies of any of the following -- or any other C
> > compilers for the 68K which were around at that time?
> >
> >* Lattice C
>
> Entirely randomly, I just opened a box I received today.  Expected in
> the box was the DEC Rainbow.  Unexpected was an original box of
> Lattice C 2.15 for 8086 - docs and original floppies plus safety
> backups.   Also a surprise - it's all in a Lifeboat Associates binder.
>

Cool beans. Is it copy protected? Sometimes I think it would be cool to
have an archive of early commercial s/w for the Rainbow somewhere...

Warner

DEC Rainbow software (was Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers)

[Ethan Dicks via cctalk]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 5:16 PM Warner Losh  wrote:
>> > Does anyone have copies of any of the following...
>> >* Lattice C
>>
>> Entirely randomly, I just opened a box I received today.  Expected in
>> the box was the DEC Rainbow.  Unexpected was an original box of
>> Lattice C 2.15 for 8086 - docs and original floppies plus safety
>> backups.   Also a surprise - it's all in a Lifeboat Associates binder.
>
> Cool beans. Is it copy protected?

I don't think so.  The box had backup floppies and I don't think this
was one of the "make a single copy for archive purposes" nonsense that
hit early MS-DOS titles.

> Sometimes I think it would be cool to have an archive of early commercial s/w 
> for the Rainbow somewhere...

There isn't one?

Well... I haven't been big on the Rainbow in the past but I see in this box:

Rainbow 100 MS-DOS Operating System Version 2.05
AUTOSORT-86 for Rainbow 100
Microsoft Multiplan-86 Spreadsheet for Rainbow 100
Rainbow CP/M-86/80 Operating System Version 2.0
Lattice C 2.15
Microsoft MBasic-86 BASIC Interpreter for Rainbow 100

and from another source, I have an original Infocom title for Rainbow
(presumably runs under DOS not CP/M).  Infocom game files are not
difficult to source but a disk image of one for a Rainbow would be
uncommon.

At the moment, I haven't finished building my "media imaging box", a
long-standing project that I really ought to kick into the priority
lane.

-ethan

Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers

[Frank McConnell via cctalk]

On Feb 12, 2019, at 14:16, Warner Losh via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 2:55 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 10:08 AM Phil Pemberton via cctalk
>>  wrote:
>>> Does anyone have copies of any of the following -- or any other C
>>> compilers for the 68K which were around at that time?
>>> 
>>>   * Lattice C
>> 
>> Entirely randomly, I just opened a box I received today.  Expected in
>> the box was the DEC Rainbow.  Unexpected was an original box of
>> Lattice C 2.15 for 8086 - docs and original floppies plus safety
>> backups.   Also a surprise - it's all in a Lifeboat Associates binder.
>> 
> 
> Cool beans. Is it copy protected? Sometimes I think it would be cool to
> have an archive of early commercial s/w for the Rainbow somewhere...

I remember moving Lattice C v2 from IBM PC diskettes to an HP 150. It was 
MS-DOS applications and compiler and linker worked on the 150. No copy 
protection.

-Frank McConnell

Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

Is Lattice C 2.whatever for 8086 uncommon?   I have a copy on a couple
of floppies.

--Chuck

Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

On 2/12/19 4:06 PM, Frank McConnell via cctalk wrote:

> I remember moving Lattice C v2 from IBM PC diskettes to an HP 150. It was 
> MS-DOS applications and compiler and linker worked on the 150. No copy 
> protection.

Lattice C was recommended by Microsoft to OEMs in the DOS 1.-2. days.
Two-step compilation process LC1, LC2, then link for executable.
Microsoft didn't yet have their own C.

--Chuck

Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers

[Fred Cisin via cctalk]

On Tue, 12 Feb 2019, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

Lattice C was recommended by Microsoft to OEMs in the DOS 1.-2. days.
Two-step compilation process LC1, LC2, then link for executable.
Microsoft didn't yet have their own C.


Microsoft C 1.0 WAS Lattice C.  1983?
(so, after recommending it, they eventually cut a deal to sell it)
IIRC, C 3.0 was the first one developed at Microsoft.  1985?

Re: Mounting HP7970e 9-Trk 1/2" Tape Drive

[Alan Frisbie via cctalk]

j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) wrote:
> > From: Alan Frisbie
> 
> > Harbor Freight sells a nice hydraulic lift table for under $200 that I
> > have found very useful for that sort of thing. It doesn't go up very 
> high
> > (like for the top of a rack), but I used it with some wood blocks 
> 
> Thanks for the tip! I got one on sale for about US$140; it's _very_ sturdy.
> And the top is just large enough to hold two milk crates (available at
> Home Depot, BTW), so it's guite easy to build up a stack as high as one
> needs to reach the top of a 6' rack.

Thank you very much for the feedback -- it makes me happy when I
know that someone finds my suggestions useful.

I've used the milk crate technique myself, with a piece of sheet
metal on top to make it easier to slide the load off.  I hope you
secure such a stack tightly.  :-)  I used some of the inexpensive
1" wide Harbor Freight cargo straps.

Alan "You can't have too many clamps or straps" Frisbie

Re: PDP-11/45 RSTS/E boot problem

[Alan Frisbie via cctalk]

> > > Likely some disk controllers did NOT SUPPORT crossing 64K boundaries!
> >
> > No; the RK11 spec says "[the two extended memory bits] make up a two-bit
> > counter that increments each time the RKBA overflows".
> >
> > The actual error turns out to be slightly different to my guess; there's
> > a spurious overflow from the low 16-bit register to these bits at 017.
> 
> Maybe a problem with E29 or E34 on the M795 module?

I am finding this entire discussion extremely fascinating!
Every day I look forward to reading the latest twists in the
plot.   The ideas, hunches, tests, dead ends, and results are an
excellent example of the debugging process.

I am awaiting the exciting Perry Mason style conclusion, where
the guilty chip stands up and confesses on the stand.  :-)

Alan "Where were you on the night of the crime?" Frisbie

Re: PDP-11/45 RSTS/E boot problem

[Fritz Mueller via cctalk]

SUCCESS!!

Put the M795 out on an extender, loaded 16 in RKBAR, and had a look around 
with a logic probe.  Narrowed it down to E34 (a 7430 8-input NAND).  Pulled, 
socketed, replaced, and off she goes!

I can now successfully boot and run both V6 Unix and RSTS/E V06C from disk.

*THAT* was a really fun and rewarding hunt :-)  First message in the thread was 
back on Dec 30, 2018.  Lots of debugging and failed DRAM repairs, then the 
final long assault to this single, failed gate...

Thanks to all here for the help and resources, and particular shout-outs for 
Noel and Paul who gave generously of their time and attention working through 
the densest bits, both on and off the list.

I predict a long happy weekend and a big power bill at the end of the month :-)

cheers,
  --FritzM.