Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA

[Evan Koblentz via cctalk]

I'll forward your supercilious and ill-informed comment to the folks I know who 
do in fact use an M100; I'm sure they will be amused...


BS.

I've been a professional full-time journalist for 20 years. No one in 
their right mind is using anything older than a last-gen laptop. Maybe 
two generations if they're poor like me.




m


- Original Message -
From: "Evan Koblentz via cctalk" 
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2017 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA



Radio Shack M100 ... still used by some writers for the very reason you mention.


That is not true.

It was an urban legend in the 1990s that a handful of old farts in the
entirely sportswriting industry (thousands of writers overall) may
"still" be using their Model 100s. I'm sure if you looked hard enough
some of them still used typewriters too.

In 2017? It's ridiculous to even speculate.

Re: BBS software was Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA

[tom sparks via cctalk]

On 03/11/17 03:56, Liam Proven wrote:


On 31 October 2017 at 23:02, tom sparks via cctalk
 wrote:

I am looking for BBS software to run on my linux computer that i can use to
down/up-load stuff for my psion 5mx

The 5MX can talk IRDA, you know, which might be easier but is
line-of-sight only.

This may be informative:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/pdf/Psion-HOWTO.pdf

Also see:

http://palmtop.cosi.com.pl/2012/12/28/psion-linux-pc-and-a-cable/


I'm look at the reverse case psion to PC

Re: Otrona / Hospital

[Dominique Carlier via cctalk]

Courage and good luck !

I wasn't able to answer more fully, nor even now.  I just spent a week 
in the hospital.  giant kidney stone and massive infection.  First few 
days were intolerable levels of pain.  I am now on 2 weeks of 24/7 IV 
antibiotic infusions.  Bizarre little pump that I carry around, but, 
at least I'm carrying it around at home, instead of the hospital.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com

Re: Otrona / Hospital

[Chuck Guzis via cctalk]

Well, when in doubt, check 22Disk, right?  Here are the CP/M formats:

BEGIN OTR1  Otrona Attache - DSDD 48 tpi 5.25"
DENSITY MFM, LOW
CYLINDERS 40 SIDES 2 SECTORS 10,512 SKEW 2
SIDE1 0 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
SIDE2 1 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
ORDER EAGLE
BSH 4 BLM 15 EXM 1 DSM 181 DRM 127 AL0 0C0H AL1 0 OFS 3
END

BEGIN OTR2  Otrona Attache - DSDD 96 tpi 5.25"
DENSITY MFM, LOW
CYLINDERS 80 SIDES 2 SECTORS 10,512 SKEW 2
SIDE1 0 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
SIDE2 1 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
ORDER CYLINDERS
BSH 4 BLM 15 EXM 0 DSM 386 DRM 127 AL0 0C0H AL1 0 OFS 3
END

I have samples on file--and probably the MS-DOS ones somewhere.  What's
interesting is that the treatment of the second side is different
between 48 and 96 tpi versions.   The EXM difference is also
interesting--could be an error, but I've received no reports on it.

--Chuck

Re: Otrona / Hospital

[Jon Elson via cctalk]

On 11/02/2017 07:37 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
 giant kidney stone and massive infection.  First few days 
were intolerable levels of pain.


WOW!  Sorry to hear about this, and hope the surgery gets 
the stone out and you recover well and quickly!


Jon

Otrona / Hospital

[Fred Cisin via cctalk]

I was not able to get access to any of my notes to more completely answer 
Eric's question.


Short answer: NO.  Otrona did not have two different obscure numbers of 
tracks for their disk sides.  On the limited number of Otronas that I 
encountered.  What I encountered was very straight-forward WD-like 
ordinarty disk formats.  IIRC, they were 10 sectors per track, with 512 
bytes per sector.

There were 40 cylinder and 80 cylinder.
There was a CP/M, and an MS-DOS.
I don't remember what the distribution of those formats was, although I 
specifically remember a 96tpi (800k) MS-DOS.


Ironically, the first one that I saw was a doctor at a hospital.
To flog the point about portability, Otrona did an early ad with a Chaplin 
imitator trying to carry a card table with a PC on it down steps in front 
of a building (capitol?)  IBM claimed to own Chaplin (and did apparently 
pay royalties to Chaplin estate), although Chaplin himself was not a big 
fan of biug corporation.



I wasn't able to answer more fully, nor even now.  I just spent a week in 
the hospital.  giant kidney stone and massive infection.  First few days 
were intolerable levels of pain.  I am now on 2 weeks of 24/7 IV 
antibiotic infusions.  Bizarre little pump that I carry around, but, at 
least I'm carrying it around at home, instead of the hospital.
THEN, in 2 weeks? they will operate to try to remove the stone.  They are 
hoping to do it with trans-urethral laser, with lithotripsy as a fall 
back.
I had not prepared for being in the hospital, so only had a phone (Samsung 
Galaxy S4), and it wasn't until the third day that I was able to wrangel 
access to my pants (and pocket contents)

I think that I will recover.

THANK YOU to the folk who wrote to me with good wishes!

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com

Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA

[Mike Stein via cctalk]

I'll forward your supercilious and ill-informed comment to the folks I know who 
do in fact use an M100; I'm sure they will be amused...

m


- Original Message - 
From: "Evan Koblentz via cctalk" 
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2017 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA


>> Radio Shack M100 ... still used by some writers for the very reason you 
>> mention.
> 
> That is not true.
> 
> It was an urban legend in the 1990s that a handful of old farts in the 
> entirely sportswriting industry (thousands of writers overall) may 
> "still" be using their Model 100s. I'm sure if you looked hard enough 
> some of them still used typewriters too.
> 
> In 2017? It's ridiculous to even speculate.

Re: Otrona Attache disk format?

[Fred Cisin via cctalk]

NO.

SS,DS
40 tps,80 tps

CP/M, MS-DOS

10 x 512bps

I'll dig out info if I get out of hospital




On Thu, 2 Nov 2017, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:


From the Otrona Attache Technical Manual, July 1983:


"The diskettes Attache uses have fourty-six tracks on the top side and
fifty tracks on the bottom side, [...]"

Really???



--
Fred Cisin  ci...@xenosoft.com
XenoSofthttp://www.xenosoft.com
PO Box 1236 (510) 234-3397
Berkeley, CA 94701-1236

Re: BBS software was Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA

[Liam Proven via cctalk]

On 31 October 2017 at 23:02, tom sparks via cctalk
 wrote:
> I am looking for BBS software to run on my linux computer that i can use to
> down/up-load stuff for my psion 5mx

The 5MX can talk IRDA, you know, which might be easier but is
line-of-sight only.

This may be informative:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/pdf/Psion-HOWTO.pdf

Also see:

http://palmtop.cosi.com.pl/2012/12/28/psion-linux-pc-and-a-cable/

-- 
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: H7861 PSU issues

[Rob Jarratt via cctalk]

I rather cut the story short, I did repair the damage and had the PSU
working again very briefly, but something else failed somewhere and it just
does not work correctly.

Regards

Rob 

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Noel
> Chiappa via cctalk
> Sent: 02 November 2017 16:24
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Cc: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: H7861 PSU issues
> 
> > From: Rob Jarratt
> 
> > when I replaced it and powered on there was a big bang
> 
> What went 'bang'? (I assume if there was a loud noise, it mus have left
visible
> damage somewhere.)
> 
>   Noel

Re: H7861 PSU issues

[Noel Chiappa via cctalk]

> From: Rob Jarratt

> when I replaced it and powered on there was a big bang

What went 'bang'? (I assume if there was a loud noise, it mus have left
visible damage somewhere.)

Noel

RE: H7861 PSU issues

[Rob Jarratt via cctalk]

In my case the PSU where I had this still does not work. It is a H7140 from
a PDP-11/24. I found the failed 555 after help from a list member, but when
I replaced it and powered on there was a big bang (I should have told you
that!). I have never been able to repair this PSU and I need someone who
really knows what they are doing to repair it as I think it is beyond me.

Regards

Rob

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Aaron
> Jackson via cctalk
> Sent: 02 November 2017 14:23
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Cc: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: H7861 PSU issues
> 
> Thanks! It was very satisfying and not the worst thing to go wrong for a
> beginner.
> 
> I was also quite surprised that such a simple component would die, and
what I
> find more confusing is that it died while I was using the machine.
> 
> Aaron.
> 
> Noel Chiappa via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> > > From: Aaron Jackson
> >
> > > Picked up a few 555s and sockets and now it works!
> >
> > Congratulations!
> >
> > It's odd that a 555 failed, but sometimes there's no rhyme or reason
> > to what fails. E.g. I was fixing some broken M7859's (KY11-LB
> > Programmer's Console), and on one of them a 7493 (4-bit counter) had
> > died. That's not one of the 'problem' 74xx chips, like ISTR the 7474
being?
> >
> > Noel

Re: H7861 PSU issues

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>I was also quite surprised that such a simple component would die,
>and what I find more confusing is that it died while I was using
>the machine.

A 555 can also take a Commodore PET down because it's solely in charge of
the RESET circuit, and no RESET == no PET.

On 2 November 2017 at 14:22, Aaron Jackson via cctalk  wrote:

> Thanks! It was very satisfying and not the worst thing to go wrong
> for a beginner.
>
> I was also quite surprised that such a simple component would die,
> and what I find more confusing is that it died while I was using
> the machine.
>
> Aaron.
>
> Noel Chiappa via cctalk  wrote:
>
> > > From: Aaron Jackson
> >
> > > Picked up a few 555s and sockets and now it works!
> >
> > Congratulations!
> >
> > It's odd that a 555 failed, but sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to
> what
> > fails. E.g. I was fixing some broken M7859's (KY11-LB Programmer's
> Console),
> > and on one of them a 7493 (4-bit counter) had died. That's not one of the
> > 'problem' 74xx chips, like ISTR the 7474 being?
> >
> >   Noel
>



-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: H7861 PSU issues

[Aaron Jackson via cctalk]

Thanks! It was very satisfying and not the worst thing to go wrong
for a beginner. 

I was also quite surprised that such a simple component would die,
and what I find more confusing is that it died while I was using
the machine.

Aaron.

Noel Chiappa via cctalk  wrote:

> > From: Aaron Jackson
> 
> > Picked up a few 555s and sockets and now it works!
> 
> Congratulations!
> 
> It's odd that a 555 failed, but sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to what
> fails. E.g. I was fixing some broken M7859's (KY11-LB Programmer's Console),
> and on one of them a 7493 (4-bit counter) had died. That's not one of the
> 'problem' 74xx chips, like ISTR the 7474 being?
> 
>   Noel

Re: H7861 PSU issues

[Noel Chiappa via cctalk]

> From: Aaron Jackson

> Picked up a few 555s and sockets and now it works!

Congratulations!

It's odd that a 555 failed, but sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to what
fails. E.g. I was fixing some broken M7859's (KY11-LB Programmer's Console),
and on one of them a 7493 (4-bit counter) had died. That's not one of the
'problem' 74xx chips, like ISTR the 7474 being?

Noel

RK06 Data Cartridges / Alignment Cart Available (and other stuff)

[william degnan via cctalk]

My last email was unclear...I have a few RK06 Data Cartridges and an
Alignment Cart Available. Contact me privately if you have an RK06 drive
and you're looking for carts.  They look like RL02's maybe a hair thinner.
 I paid a small amt, and I am looking to be reimbursed for the cost.

I have no RK06 drive.  RK06 cartridges are NOT compatible with RK07's
according to the manual.  If you're in the Landenberg, PA area stop by,

At some point I will publish a list of other DEC items I have in clean
organized storage.

Bill

Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?

[Angelo Papenhoff via cctalk]

On 29/10/17, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:
> Another fun KA10 fact: it used 'hardware subroutines' - i.e. a clock pulse
> would get to a certain point, and get conditionally diverted through some
> other circuitry, later to come back and continue where it left off. Whee!

When I was taking a look at the CDC 1604 lately (btw, sadly two documents
are missing on bitsavers) I saw pretty much the same thing. Something
would set a flip-flop, go through the memory sequence, and continue from
the point it left off. This reminded me of the PDP-6 immediately (which
I'm very familiar with because of a logic-level emulator and verilog
implementation I've written [1]). The indexing and indirection mechanism
was also very similar. I suspect Gordon Bell was inspired by this
machine a bit. I think I'll mail him about the 6 again...


aap

[1] https://github.com/aap/pdp6

RE: H7861 PSU issues

[Rob Jarratt via cctalk]

Great news, congratulations! I am about to see if my H7826 works tonight
after cleaning it up and replacing a few electrolytic capacitors.

Regards

Rob

> -Original Message-
> From: Aaron Jackson [mailto:aa...@aaronsplace.co.uk]
> Sent: 01 November 2017 18:25
> To: r...@jarratt.me.uk
> Cc: 'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts' 
> Subject: Re: H7861 PSU issues
> 
> Picked up a few 555s and sockets and now it works! I am very happy. Going
> from not knowing how switch mode power supplies work, to watching some
> YouTube videos, and then finally being able to debug the problem and fix
it was
> a lot of fun.
> 
> I wonder what will die next.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Aaron.
> 
> 
> Rob Jarratt writes:
> 
> > I had a dead 555 on a completely different PSU, so it could be worth
> > checking. I socketed it when I replaced it so it was easy to replace
again.
> >
> > Also, just because a capacitor doesn't appear swollen or show signs of
> > leakage, it seems that this doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't
> > need replacing. In yet another PSU that I repaired recently, replacing
> > the capacitors fixed it, although in the end I think the one that
> > really fixed it was showing signs of leakage. On a lot of caps that I
> > replace they show no leakage signs, but I do see a bit of a deposit on
> > the negative terminal, I am not sure if this is a sign of any kind of
problem.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Rob
> >
> >> -Original Message-
> >> From: cctech [mailto:cctech-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of
> >> Aaron Jackson via cctech
> >> Sent: 31 October 2017 21:26
> >> To: cct...@classiccmp.org
> >> Subject: Re: H7861 PSU issues
> >>
> >> Just had another look after watching a video about how switch mode
> >> power supplies work On the small control board connecting to J4,
> >> there are
> > two
> >> D44Q1 transistors. As expected, there is about 65KHz going into the
> >> base
> > of the
> >> transistor for the 5V side. However, there is no signal going into
> >> the
> > base of the
> >> transistor for the 12V side, from pin 3 of the 555. So, it looks like
> >> the
> > problem is
> >> coming from around here. I measured the suspicious components around
> >> the
> >> 555 and they seem fine.
> >>
> >> How likely is it that the 555 is dead? There is 10v going into pin 8,
> > which I
> >> believe is correct.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Aaron.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Aaron Jackson writes:
> >>
> >> > Hi everyone,
> >> >
> >> > I've been trying to figure out what is wrong with the 12V rail on
> >> > my
> >> > H7861 (BA11-S) power supply. It's showing about 4.2V. The 5V rail
> >> > is spot on.
> >> >
> >> > Page 39 of the following schematics is the main part board of the
PSU.
> >> > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/qbus/MP01233_BA11-S_schem_Mar81.pdf
> >> >
> >> > Going into the collector of Q3 is about 80V coming straight from T2
> >> > (I think I measured it at about 100Hz), but the emitter is putting
> >> > out the 4.2V, which is the same as the base voltage and output
> >> > voltage. I tried replacing this transistor because the hFE was
> >> > about 80 and a good one was about 120. Unfortunately it didn't do
> anything.
> >> >
> >> > None of the capacitors look swollen and I don't see any leakage.
> >> > There is a smaller board which I think goes into J4. The 12V side
> >> > seems to have a 555 timer and adjusting the pot doesn't change the
> >> > voltage at all.
> >> >
> >> > My understanding of switchmode power supplies is very poor. Does
> >> > anyone have some pointers on what to check or what might be the
> >> > possible
> >> cause?
> >> >
> >> > Hopefully I can get my PDP up and running again... Only got about
> >> > 20 minutes use out of it.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks!
> >> >
> >> > Aaron.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Aaron Jackson
> >> PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham
> >> http://aaronsplace.co.uk
> 
> 
> --
> Aaron Jackson
> PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham
> http://aaronsplace.co.uk

Re: H7861 PSU issues

[Aaron Jackson via cctalk]

Picked up a few 555s and sockets and now it works! I am very
happy. Going from not knowing how switch mode power supplies work, to
watching some YouTube videos, and then finally being able to debug the
problem and fix it was a lot of fun.

I wonder what will die next.

Thanks,

Aaron.


Rob Jarratt writes:

> I had a dead 555 on a completely different PSU, so it could be worth
> checking. I socketed it when I replaced it so it was easy to replace again.
>
> Also, just because a capacitor doesn't appear swollen or show signs of
> leakage, it seems that this doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't need
> replacing. In yet another PSU that I repaired recently, replacing the
> capacitors fixed it, although in the end I think the one that really fixed
> it was showing signs of leakage. On a lot of caps that I replace they show
> no leakage signs, but I do see a bit of a deposit on the negative terminal,
> I am not sure if this is a sign of any kind of problem.
>
> Regards
>
> Rob
>
>> -Original Message-
>> From: cctech [mailto:cctech-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Aaron
>> Jackson via cctech
>> Sent: 31 October 2017 21:26
>> To: cct...@classiccmp.org
>> Subject: Re: H7861 PSU issues
>>
>> Just had another look after watching a video about how switch mode power
>> supplies work On the small control board connecting to J4, there are
> two
>> D44Q1 transistors. As expected, there is about 65KHz going into the base
> of the
>> transistor for the 5V side. However, there is no signal going into the
> base of the
>> transistor for the 12V side, from pin 3 of the 555. So, it looks like the
> problem is
>> coming from around here. I measured the suspicious components around the
>> 555 and they seem fine.
>>
>> How likely is it that the 555 is dead? There is 10v going into pin 8,
> which I
>> believe is correct.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Aaron.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Aaron Jackson writes:
>>
>> > Hi everyone,
>> >
>> > I've been trying to figure out what is wrong with the 12V rail on my
>> > H7861 (BA11-S) power supply. It's showing about 4.2V. The 5V rail is
>> > spot on.
>> >
>> > Page 39 of the following schematics is the main part board of the PSU.
>> > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/qbus/MP01233_BA11-S_schem_Mar81.pdf
>> >
>> > Going into the collector of Q3 is about 80V coming straight from T2 (I
>> > think I measured it at about 100Hz), but the emitter is putting out
>> > the 4.2V, which is the same as the base voltage and output voltage. I
>> > tried replacing this transistor because the hFE was about 80 and a
>> > good one was about 120. Unfortunately it didn't do anything.
>> >
>> > None of the capacitors look swollen and I don't see any leakage. There
>> > is a smaller board which I think goes into J4. The 12V side seems to
>> > have a 555 timer and adjusting the pot doesn't change the voltage at
>> > all.
>> >
>> > My understanding of switchmode power supplies is very poor. Does
>> > anyone have some pointers on what to check or what might be the possible
>> cause?
>> >
>> > Hopefully I can get my PDP up and running again... Only got about 20
>> > minutes use out of it.
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> >
>> > Aaron.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Aaron Jackson
>> PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham
>> http://aaronsplace.co.uk


--
Aaron Jackson
PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham
http://aaronsplace.co.uk

RK06 dirve

[william degnan via cctalk]

Does anyone out there have an DEC RK06 drive?
Bill

Re: RK06 dirve

[Paul Anderson via cctalk]

I might have a controller and some RK06 and or RK07 packs. Also a few drive
boards.

On Wed, Nov 1, 2017 at 11:03 PM, william degnan via cctech <
cct...@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Does anyone out there have an DEC RK06 drive?
> Bill
>

Otrona Attache disk format?

[Eric Smith via cctalk]

>From the Otrona Attache Technical Manual, July 1983:

"The diskettes Attache uses have fourty-six tracks on the top side and
fifty tracks on the bottom side, [...]"

Really???