Re: Alto II keyset connector plug identification
This place has the 2de19p connectors in their catalog. Kinda pricey though. https://www.onlinecomponents.com/keywordsearch.aspx?text=2de19p=2 Sent from my iPhone On Aug 19, 2020, at 17:48, Ian Finder via cctalk wrote: It's actually an ITT CANON ***2DE19P***, not a DE19 as Marc indicates. On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 1:48 AM Curious Marc via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: We had the same problem. It’s a DE-19 connector, fits in the same envelope has a DB-9, but 3 rows instead of 2. You can see in this video right around here: https://youtu.be/GMp5EAq-Elo?t=541 . ITT-canon used to make these. You can look them up on eBay, which is where we found ours. Make sure you don’t get a two row DB-19, which is a completely different animal. Marc On Aug 18, 2020, at 8:15 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: Would anyone be able to identify the 19 pin connector used on the Alto II keyset? Shown in the second photo on https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X124.82C The Xerox engineering doc (209962B_Alto_II_Assembly_Keyset.pdf) has it as P/N DE51218-1 if I interpret it correctly. I've looked for a while and the closest I can find appears to be Mouser p/n 2DEF19P The cost of 136 USD (each!) is more than I (and perhaps everyone else) would really like to pay, and that's only for the male end. Ideally I would like a datasheet on this original connector if possible, to know the pin-pin spacing and the pressed metal surround dimensions. I've just ordered small trial quantities of screws, microswitches, e-clips, nutserts, rods and so on for my keyset lookalikes/workalikes. Also about to start the key mapping to F5-F9 using a popular small SOC board, which is small enough to be inside a custom printed shell that the keyset plugs into. That is, the 3-row 19-pin female connector side which goes through to USB. I was thinking there's no reason it shouldn't be able to work using the original connector with a real keyset-less Alto, should any such animal be lurking out there. Hence looking at the feasibility of placing in a 19 pin male-female connector arrangement rather than the fallback of straight-through to USB. The whole thing is still at prototype stage so even if it doesn't work out, well I will at least have a bunch of additions to my nuts/bolts/fasteners/switches stash. Thanks for any help, Steve.
Network gear that supported StarLAN 1 (not 10)
I was wondering if anybody remembers which networking vendors supported StarLAN 1, or 802.3e / 1Base5, back in the 1980s? Hoping to get product names and/or model numbers. I've come across some references to Western Digital, Micom-Interlan, Cross Comm Corp (Massachusetts), and Fox Research (later DCA?) possibly having offered products to bridge StarLAN to Ethernet. But in the few cases where I've seen a model (ex. Cross Comm 487 Series) I haven't been able to get past blurbs in Info World. I have one host interface, expect more to arrive shortly, and would love to track down a bridge/switch/router that might allow me to make them reachable from Ethernet. Thanks, --Steve.
Re: Alto II keyset connector plug identification
It's actually an ITT CANON ***2DE19P***, not a DE19 as Marc indicates. On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 1:48 AM Curious Marc via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > We had the same problem. It’s a DE-19 connector, fits in the same envelope > has a DB-9, but 3 rows instead of 2. You can see in this video right around > here: https://youtu.be/GMp5EAq-Elo?t=541 . ITT-canon used to make these. > You can look them up on eBay, which is where we found ours. Make sure you > don’t get a two row DB-19, which is a completely different animal. > Marc > > > On Aug 18, 2020, at 8:15 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > Would anyone be able to identify the 19 pin connector used on the Alto > II keyset? > > Shown in the second photo on > https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X124.82C > > > > The Xerox engineering doc (209962B_Alto_II_Assembly_Keyset.pdf) has it > as P/N DE51218-1 if I interpret it correctly. > > > > I've looked for a while and the closest I can find appears to be Mouser > p/n 2DEF19P > > The cost of 136 USD (each!) is more than I (and perhaps everyone else) > would really like to pay, and that's only for > > the male end. > > > > Ideally I would like a datasheet on this original connector if possible, > to know the pin-pin spacing and the pressed metal > > surround dimensions. > > > > I've just ordered small trial quantities of screws, microswitches, > e-clips, nutserts, rods and so on for my keyset > > lookalikes/workalikes. Also about to start the key mapping to F5-F9 > using a popular small SOC board, which is small enough > > to be inside a custom printed shell that the keyset plugs into. > > That is, the 3-row 19-pin female connector side which goes through to > USB. > > > > I was thinking there's no reason it shouldn't be able to work using the > original connector with a real keyset-less Alto, > > should any such animal be lurking out there. Hence looking at the > feasibility of placing in a 19 pin male-female > > connector arrangement rather than the fallback of straight-through to > USB. > > > > The whole thing is still at prototype stage so even if it doesn't work > out, well I will at least have a bunch of additions > > to my nuts/bolts/fasteners/switches stash. > > > > Thanks for any help, > > > > Steve. > > >
Re: SIMH on low overhead platform
On Aug 17, 2020, at 12:43 AM, Tom Hunter via cctalk wrote: > > Has SIMH been ported to a low overhead (instant-on) platform? I use NetBSD on a surplus HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8, NetBSD 9.0-stable boots in just a few seconds. The hardware itself takes a couple minutes to go through its bootstrap process, however. (I should have considered setting up ESXi and installing NetBSD atop that to avoid the hardware boot process, since I'm regularly rebuilding and updating NetBSD?) It's funny, but it seems to be true that the pricier hardware takes longer to POST. I bought several AMD AM1 CPUs / motherboards when a set only cost $50 and I use them as routers running NetBSD. From power on to booting the kernel is less than three seconds. Getting to fully multiuser is less than 30 seconds, even with DHCP. Oh yeah, NetBSD 9.0-stable 64-bit also only takes a few seconds to boot on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. It's easy enough to just throw on an SD card and try out. Alas the Raspberry Pi 4 isn't supported yet by NetBSD, though I think it's coming along. An RPi4 with 4 or 8GB of RAM should be a very nice turnkey SIMH server. Yes, the Pis boot very quickly. The Pi 4 is supported, but just not in NetBSD 9. The Pi 4 takes a wee bit longer to boot because it uses UEFI, but I think the difference in performance is well worth the extra few seconds. https://github.com/pftf/RPi4 https://twitter.com/AnachronistJohn/status/1287628712981049345 A bonus is that you can boot directly off of USB attached storage (although I'm still loading UEFI and the kernel off of the SD card). SIMH runs very well on the Pi 4. John
Re: Burroughs Emulators (Was: UniSys ClearPath OS/2200 Express?)
Jay, On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 08:56:53PM -0500, Jay Jaeger via cctalk wrote: > Did you try contacting that particular author? His github info > indicates it should run under Cygwin on Windows or Linux. No. I checked the github issue tracker to see if a bug report had already been filed for the issue. Before I got around to filing one someone reminded me that a SIMH B5500 emulator was available. I have MCP MARK XIII and CANDE up and running on that emulator. I also have ClearPath MCP Express Release 6.0 up and running. -- Kevin http://www.RawFedDogs.net http://www.Lassie.xyz http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org Bruceville, TX What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works! Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.
Re: Sun/3-powered 737 flight sim
tis 2020-08-18 klockan 16:00 +0100 skrev Antonio Carlini via cctalk: > On 18/08/2020 06:25, Plamen Mihaylov via cctalk wrote: > > I’ve attached different AUI transceivers to Sun3/E SCSI/Ethernet at > > least > > 100 times while running and nothing happened. The Sun 3/E prom has > > on board > > diagnostic which could provide more information on the failure. > > I must admit I was a little surprised by the statement that AUI > cables > cannot be hot-plugged safely. > > I certainly don't remember any such restriction back in the day > (although it's entirely possible that I was never told or have > forgotten). > > Anyone got a definitive statement from anywhere? > > Antonio > Neither I, but i'm really only knowledgeable of IPC/SS10/SS5 era , not so much 1+ for example.
Re: Alto II keyset connector plug identification
We had the same problem. It’s a DE-19 connector, fits in the same envelope has a DB-9, but 3 rows instead of 2. You can see in this video right around here: https://youtu.be/GMp5EAq-Elo?t=541 . ITT-canon used to make these. You can look them up on eBay, which is where we found ours. Make sure you don’t get a two row DB-19, which is a completely different animal. Marc > On Aug 18, 2020, at 8:15 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk > wrote: > > Would anyone be able to identify the 19 pin connector used on the Alto II > keyset? > Shown in the second photo on > https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X124.82C > > The Xerox engineering doc (209962B_Alto_II_Assembly_Keyset.pdf) has it as P/N > DE51218-1 if I interpret it correctly. > > I've looked for a while and the closest I can find appears to be Mouser p/n > 2DEF19P > The cost of 136 USD (each!) is more than I (and perhaps everyone else) would > really like to pay, and that's only for > the male end. > > Ideally I would like a datasheet on this original connector if possible, to > know the pin-pin spacing and the pressed metal > surround dimensions. > > I've just ordered small trial quantities of screws, microswitches, e-clips, > nutserts, rods and so on for my keyset > lookalikes/workalikes. Also about to start the key mapping to F5-F9 using a > popular small SOC board, which is small enough > to be inside a custom printed shell that the keyset plugs into. > That is, the 3-row 19-pin female connector side which goes through to USB. > > I was thinking there's no reason it shouldn't be able to work using the > original connector with a real keyset-less Alto, > should any such animal be lurking out there. Hence looking at the feasibility > of placing in a 19 pin male-female > connector arrangement rather than the fallback of straight-through to USB. > > The whole thing is still at prototype stage so even if it doesn't work out, > well I will at least have a bunch of additions > to my nuts/bolts/fasteners/switches stash. > > Thanks for any help, > > Steve. >
