Re: Tandon TM 848-02

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 24 Feb 2022, at 12:21, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 2/24/22 01:09, Mike Stein wrote:
>> P 1-17 of the Service Manual
> 
> What manual?  I understand the one on bitsavers is for the
> 848 and not the 848-02 which has a completely different logic
> board.  Have I been misinformed?


This is the one I have, it covers both -1 and -2 since they're the same board, 
only the number of heads is different.

https://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/TandonTM848ServiceGuide.pdf 


Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Installing an operating system on an 11/83

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 22 Feb 2022, at 15:20, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 22/02/2022 14:19, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> That didn't stop me being massively nervy installing a VMS v5.0 upgrade from 
>> RX50s to a customer's VAX 11/50... I think it was the first one that I'd 
>> done so no pressure.
> 
> I remember doing the V5 upgrade on a VAX-11/750 but via tape. You still 
> needed to boot from TU58, which seemed to take roughly forever.
> 
> 
> I imagine it was possible to hook up RX50s to a VAX-11/750 but I never saw 
> one configured that way. Why not use tape :-)
> 

That's just what the request was. I suspect they didn't have a tape drive, the 
VAX was the only bit of DEC kit they had because the fixed drives were all 
Systems Industries. They probably did a disk backup for reasons. I know for a 
fact that the local failed circus engineers hated this particular site because 
most of the faults they went to work on were because of the SI drives which 
IIRC were Fuji/Eagle.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Installing an operating system on an 11/83

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 22 Feb 2022, at 14:01, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 22/02/2022 03:27, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
>> Are RX50 drives less robust than what was used to install Windoze 95?
> 
> 
> I never installed it this way myself, but MicroVMS on the MicroVAX II was 
> distributed on RX50 floppies: lost of them.
> 
> 
> Of course, that was then and the floppy drives were younger and less 
> temperamental (and perhaps the same could be said about the people feeding 
> the drives floppies ...)
> 

That didn't stop me being massively nervy installing a VMS v5.0 upgrade from 
RX50s to a customer's VAX 11/50... I think it was the first one that I'd done 
so no pressure.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Found my favorite DOS editor

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 1 Oct 2021, at 12:58, Liam Proven via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 1 Oct 2021 at 05:03, Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez via cctalk
>  wrote:
> 
>> For the Mac, there is TextWrangler (free version
>> of BBEdit), with many useful capabilities (such as editing a remote file
>> via an sftp:// URL, for example).
> 
> Discontinued some years ago, sadly.
> 

Yes, and instead they made BBEdit free for the most part. That’s what I’m 
using. Still got TextWrangler on the older Macs of course.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Found my favorite DOS editor

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 28 Sep 2021, at 23:13, Guy Sotomayor via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 9/28/21 3:02 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> On 9/28/2021 2:48 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
>>> 
 "I've been using vi for about two years, mostly because I can't figure out
 how to exit it."
>>> 
>>> :q
>>> 
>>> you're welcome
>>> 
>> Or having to power cycle the machine to get out of EMACS.
> 
> Why would you ever want to get out of EMACS?  ;-)

For some reason it’s embedded in my cranium that to exit TECO it’s CTRL-C 
. No idea why I remember that since I’ve not used TECO since the 80s, 
and only then out of curiosity.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VAX4000 VLC diagnostics/console

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 4 Sep 2021, at 02:42, Jay Jaeger via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On 7/14/2021 12:32 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> VT100 to the rescue, the VLC is fine talking to it so now I'm wondering why
>> my old faithful hardware UART in this PC I'm typing on now has let me down.
>> The BlueSCSI appears as 7 devices though, which is usually a termination or
>> ID problem so I now need to dig out an external terminator for the box
>> since it's never had one. The hard drive in there has been good at
>> providing its own TERMPWR which the BlueSCSI should too but I'll play by
>> the rules to test things properly.
>> Cheers,
> 
> I think BlueSCSI will only appear as the devices you have image files named 
> for on its SD card.


What I meant was on a SHO DEV I got 7 Quantum Fireballs (DKA0-500, DKA700), in 
my VAX days this meant there was either an ID conflict with another device on 
the bus or a termination issue. I only had one image on the sdcard which was 
ID0 so there weren’t any other devices present, so it had to be a termination 
issue.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

XENIX for Tandy 2000

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

Does anyone happen to have any links for XENIX on a Tandy 2000? 

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VAX4000 VLC diagnostics/console

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 15 Jul 2021, at 08:03, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> 
> It would be nice to know if Bluepill works on the VS4000 range: I wonder if 
> my VS4000-90 would then become silent enough to run more often!


So far it’s detected as  a Quantum Fireball but also is detected 8 times. I 
notice the chipset in the VLC is NCR and there are known issues with the NCR 
chipset in a Mac SE so I’ve poked a message out on the blueSCSI discord server 
to see if anyone has any ideas. One of the contributors worked on the SCSI2SD 
for VAX so he may be of help.


-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VAX4000 VLC diagnostics/console

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 15 Jul 2021, at 03:42, Doc Shipley via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 7/13/21 14:30, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>> Powering up with nothing attached apart from an MMJ/H8571 cable I get
>> nothing on the console, I'm using PuTTY via a genuine COM1 port on a PC
>> which is one level above what I used last time I powered the machine up
>> (FTDI USB adapter to a laptop). Diagnostic LEDs cycle through the tests and
>> end up at ' 0011' which according to the manual is 'entering the
>> console program'.
>> Clearly the DALLAS has passed the TOY tests, but if it's not happy would
>> that stop the console displaying? It doesn't matter how I set S3, next step
>> I guess is to hook it up to a 'proper' VT.
> 
> 
>  Adrian, I'm having exactly that problem with my VLC.  I put a Real VT420 on 
> it and still get no output. With a known-good/compatible monitor and keyboard 
> on it, same thing.
> 
>  If there's a solution to this, I'd love to know.

All I did with the VT was connect up with the usual H8575-A MMJ-DB25 adapter, 
set S3 to up and switch on. Presumably your LEDs are going through the right 
sequence and end up at  0011? 

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VAX4000 VLC diagnostics/console

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

VT100 to the rescue, the VLC is fine talking to it so now I'm wondering why
my old faithful hardware UART in this PC I'm typing on now has let me down.

The BlueSCSI appears as 7 devices though, which is usually a termination or
ID problem so I now need to dig out an external terminator for the box
since it's never had one. The hard drive in there has been good at
providing its own TERMPWR which the BlueSCSI should too but I'll play by
the rules to test things properly.

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Wed, 14 Jul 2021 at 08:32, Adrian Graham 
wrote:

>
>
> On 13 Jul 2021, at 23:20, Antonio Carlini via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> On 13/07/2021 22:34, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
>
> On 7/13/2021 3:30 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> Powering up with nothing attached apart from an MMJ/H8571 cable I get
> nothing on the console, I'm using PuTTY via a genuine COM1 port on a PC
> which is one level above what I used last time I powered the machine up
> (FTDI USB adapter to a laptop). Diagnostic LEDs cycle through the tests and
> end up at ' 0011' which according to the manual is 'entering the
> console program'.
>
> There are 2 ways to have a console on the VAX4000/VLC.  A switch on the
> back selects either; (1) graphics console mode, or (2) terminal attached to
> the serial port.  It sounds like you have the switch set to graphics
> console mode, in that case you get nothing from the serial port.
>
> I can't remember where the switch is on the back, bitsavers or someone who
> remembers can help.
>
> Doug
>
> If you look from the front it's on the right hand side and marked "S3",
> between the grey reset switch and the keyboard connector. I think that S3
> needs to be UP otherwise it would expect a monitor and keyboard to be
> attached.
>
> The MMJ connector is on the back (but obviously Adrian has found that ...
> or he's pushed really, really hard into either the keyboard connector or
> the phone connector :-))
>
>
> Bear in mind I’m an old DEC head and have been since the early 80s ;)
> Though I HAVE seen customers get RJ11 cables jammed in MMJ ports before,
> because ’they look alike’.
>
> Both of you missed my sentence where I said ‘It doesn’t matter what
> position I have S3 in’, and IIRC even with S3 set to graphics you would
> still get a dead sergeant on a VT once init had completed, you just
> wouldn’t see POST.
>
> Anyway, I’ll hook up a VT today at some point and see if anything happens.
>
> Cheers
>
> --
> Adrian Graham
> Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
> collection?
> t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
> w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
>
>
>
>
>
>

Re: VAX4000 VLC diagnostics/console

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 13 Jul 2021, at 23:20, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 13/07/2021 22:34, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
>> On 7/13/2021 3:30 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>>> Hi folks,
>>> 
>>> Powering up with nothing attached apart from an MMJ/H8571 cable I get
>>> nothing on the console, I'm using PuTTY via a genuine COM1 port on a PC
>>> which is one level above what I used last time I powered the machine up
>>> (FTDI USB adapter to a laptop). Diagnostic LEDs cycle through the tests and
>>> end up at ' 0011' which according to the manual is 'entering the
>>> console program'.
>>> 
>> There are 2 ways to have a console on the VAX4000/VLC.  A switch on the back 
>> selects either; (1) graphics console mode, or (2) terminal attached to the 
>> serial port.  It sounds like you have the switch set to graphics console 
>> mode, in that case you get nothing from the serial port.
>> 
>> I can't remember where the switch is on the back, bitsavers or someone who 
>> remembers can help.
>> 
>> Doug
>> 
> If you look from the front it's on the right hand side and marked "S3", 
> between the grey reset switch and the keyboard connector. I think that S3 
> needs to be UP otherwise it would expect a monitor and keyboard to be 
> attached.
> 
> The MMJ connector is on the back (but obviously Adrian has found that ... or 
> he's pushed really, really hard into either the keyboard connector or the 
> phone connector :-))

Bear in mind I’m an old DEC head and have been since the early 80s ;) Though I 
HAVE seen customers get RJ11 cables jammed in MMJ ports before, because ’they 
look alike’.

Both of you missed my sentence where I said ‘It doesn’t matter what position I 
have S3 in’, and IIRC even with S3 set to graphics you would still get a dead 
sergeant on a VT once init had completed, you just wouldn’t see POST. 

Anyway, I’ll hook up a VT today at some point and see if anything happens.

Cheers

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

VAX4000 VLC diagnostics/console

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

I'm testing a little BlueSCSI adapter (BlueSCSI ) which
while being aimed at 68K Macs should also work as an 8 bit target for older
VAXen, it's a newer cheaper SCSI2SD solution and I should point out it
works as intended on a Mac Plus so the module itself is fine.

Nobody appears to have tested on small VAXen yet so tonight I dug out my
VLC to give it a go.

Powering up with nothing attached apart from an MMJ/H8571 cable I get
nothing on the console, I'm using PuTTY via a genuine COM1 port on a PC
which is one level above what I used last time I powered the machine up
(FTDI USB adapter to a laptop). Diagnostic LEDs cycle through the tests and
end up at ' 0011' which according to the manual is 'entering the
console program'.

Clearly the DALLAS has passed the TOY tests, but if it's not happy would
that stop the console displaying? It doesn't matter how I set S3, next step
I guess is to hook it up to a 'proper' VT.

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: INFAPLUG LAN

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 25 Jun 2021, at 23:31, Grant Taylor via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 6/25/21 2:07 AM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> Hello folks,
> 
> Hi,
> 
>> A random conversation on twitter yesterday lead me to discovering an old 
>> 1980s LAN technology called INFAPLUG.
> 
> Would you mind sharing link(s) to said conversation?  It sounds like one I'd 
> like to learn from / maybe be part of.

My orginal email was pretty much it unfortunately, since it was borne out of a 
thread on Stag PPZ EPROM programmers.

>> This was a serial LAN hooked up via a PC serial port at 9600 baud to a 
>> ’smart plug’ the size of a wall wart. This plug contained all the smarts and 
>> hooked into the coax backbone. There were boards available for VAX amongst 
>> other things so I’m amazed I’d never heard of it.
> 
> Interesting.
> 
>> Has anyone else?
> 
> I have not.
> 
>> A small writeup is here: 
>> https://archive.org/details/lansexplainedgui00curr/page/64/mode/2up?q=infaplug
> 
> ~grumble~grumble~grumble~there goes $14~grumble~grumble~grumble~
> 

I wasn’t about to pay up which is why I asked here :)

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

INFAPLUG LAN

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hello folks,

A random conversation on twitter yesterday lead me to discovering an old 1980s 
LAN technology called INFAPLUG. This was a serial LAN hooked up via a PC serial 
port at 9600 baud to a ’smart plug’ the size of a wall wart. This plug 
contained all the smarts and hooked into the coax backbone. There were boards 
available for VAX amongst other things so I’m amazed I’d never heard of it.

Has anyone else?

A small writeup is here: 
https://archive.org/details/lansexplainedgui00curr/page/64/mode/2up?q=infaplug 


Cheers!

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VT100 colors

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 21 Jun 2021, at 14:48, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 21/06/2021 07:51, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:
>> I want to say that it’s white.  Though I can’t get to mine right now.
>> 
>> Zane
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPod
>> 
>>> On Jun 20, 2021, at 10:50 PM, Lars Brinkhoff via cctalk 
>>>  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> Does anyone know what colors a VT100 is?  Most photos online has it
>>> looking yellowish, but I expect that's from aging.  Some people I have
>>> asked claim it was a light cream color.  This bitsavers picture has it
>>> looking neutral grey:
>>> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt100/vt100_wps-8.jpg
>>> 
>>> And the black parts are claimed to be dark brown.
>>> 
>>> I haven't found any color codes in the manuals.
> 
> 
> I can't get t mine either but I think they were originally light cream, but 
> not bright white.
> 
> I suspect that most photos have it as yellowish because that's what they are 
> now :-)
> 
> The black bits I remember as black.
> 
> 
> I remember the tube colour being green, I think I remember seeing amber and I 
> believe that white was an available option.

All my VTs are coloured how I remember them - light cream with black inserts. 
It wouldn’t surprise me if they were produced in slightly different colours 
back then, but my DECbox (VT100 with embedded Beaglebone) behind me is how I 
remember them. I have a pic of me in front of it back in (I think) 1985 so I’ll 
dig that out.

I don’t remember the screens being green though, my first encounter with green 
screens was VT220s and all my VT1xx’s are white. This could just have been our 
corner of the UK though.


-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: SCSI2SD

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

I know a lot of folk using SCSI2SD in VAXen with great success, and now
there's a new kid on the block that was originally for the Sharp X68000 but
is currently being heavily tested on 68K Macs and I see no reason why it
shouldn't work on low-end VAXen too. I'll be ordering one soon to try.

Home · akuker/RASCSI Wiki · GitHub 

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Fri, 21 May 2021 at 21:41, Zane Healy via cctalk 
wrote:

> Does anyone have experience using a SCSI2SD board to replace a Hard Drive
> on a VAXstation or an AlphaStation?  I’m thinking about using them on some
> of my systems to reduce the amount of noise.  I’ve gotten used to a quiet
> office. :-)
>
> Zane
>
>
>
>

Re: DDS Intertec SuperBrain attic find w/ OS and dust cover

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi Eric,

I'm in the UK so can't be much help for rehoming, but please don't send
this to the recyclers. I'm sure there'll be someone on this list who will
take it. One thing we're really short of in the Superbrain world is disk
images of the OS and applications etc so if there's a box of floppies too
then that's even more useful.

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Mon, 17 May 2021 at 20:42, Eric Evans via cctalk 
wrote:

> Classic Computer Collectors,
>
> My name is Eric and I live in Baton Rouge, LA. A customer of mine recently
> asked me to find a good home for his early 1980's Intertec Superbrain. He
> told me that it worked the last time he used it in 198? after which time it
> sat in his attic with the dust cover on it. He provided me with a number of
> 5.25" floppy disks, which he said contained the complete operating system.
>
> The chassis appears to be 100% intact, and includes the dust cover. I can
> provide a few photos if you'd like.
>
> I have not yet been able to make contact with any other classic PC
> collectors, or museums that have expressed interest. Before I send it out
> to my local recycler, I thought I'd reach out and see if anyone might be
> interested.
>
> Thank you for your time & God bless,
>
> Eric Evans
> 225homebuyers.com
> 225.242.9858 gVoice
> 316.461.8587 cell
>
>
> -- Forwarded message -
> From: Dave Dunfield 
> Date: Tue, May 11, 2021 at 11:09 PM
> Subject: Re: DDS Intertec SuperBrain attic find w/ OS and dust cover
> To: Eric Evans <4eric.ev...@gmail.com>
>
>
> Hi Eric,
>
> Sorry but no - I'm moving to smaller digs and have had to let much of my
> collection go and simply can't take on more right now. You might try the
> Classic computer collectors mailing list:
>
>http://www.classiccmp.org
>
> Dave
>
> Btw: In asking stuff like this it might be a good idea to state your (or
> friends) location.
>
> On Mon, May 10, 2021 at 5:22 PM Eric Evans <4eric.ev...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dave,
> >
> > A customer of mine recently asked me to find a good home for his early
> > 1980's Intertec Superbrain. He told me that it worked the last time he
> used
> > it in 198? after which time it sat in his attic with the dust cover on
> it.
> > He provided me with a number of 5.25" floppy disks, which he said
> contained
> > the complete operating system.
> >
> > The chassis appears to be 100% intact, and includes the dust cover. I can
> > provide a few photos if you'd like.
> >
> > I have not yet been able to make contact with any other classic PC
> > collectors, or museums that have expressed interest. Before I send it out
> > to my local recycler, I thought I'd reach out and see if you had any
> > interest, or knew of anyone who might.
> >
> > Thank you for your time & God bless,
> >
> > Eric Evans
> > 225homebuyers.com
> > 225.242.9858 gVoice
> > 316.461.8587 cell
> >
>
>
> --
>
> --
> Search "Dave's Old Computers" see "my personal" at bottom!
>

Re: Apple II PSU

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Just me that reaches for a 2mm drill then? I realise people may react in horror 
at this, but your chances of getting swarf in the PSU are slim to negative. Oh 
and while you’re in there, please remove the 0.47uF RIFA before it explodes, 
assuming it hasn’t already of course in which case it’d be best to clean up the 
mess it left when it did.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk



> On 10 May 2021, at 23:06, David Williams via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> Anyone have any idea on how to open this particular Apple II PSU? It is a 
> Astec AA 11040B and has like a rivet on each side in the middle. All the 
> other supplies I've messed with just had screws along the bottom. Trying to 
> remove the bottom of the casing so I can work on the supply itself. Link to a 
> pic of it.
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> 
> http://www.trailingedge.com/images/A2PSU.jpg
> 
> David Williams
> www.trailingedge.com

Bounces

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

Did anyone else get an email about excessive bounces today? I’ve not changed 
anything hosting wise forever so this is a bit weird.

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: ISO intel iPDS-100 w/8085 pod (UK)

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 23 Apr 2021, at 11:37, Christian Corti via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 23 Apr 2021, Adrian Graham wrote:
>> I just got pipped on an auction for one of these last night, clearly someone 
>> needed it more than me and I hope it was for a real usage reason and not 
>> just to add to their collection of MDS-related machines.
>> 
>> I?ve been looking for an 8085 ICE for ages now to help troubleshoot my STC 
>> Executel phone systems so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to get my 
>> hands on one but hey, that?s how auctions work. This one also has an 
>> external 37 pin floppy interface so I was hoping I could hook up an 8? drive 
>> to be able to read the Executel source floppy disks I have.
> 
> Reminds me that we got three iPDS-100 several weeks ago. Two have additional 
> bubble memory modules, and there's one extra external floppy drive. And yes, 
> there are some 8085 ICE and EPROM programmes with them ;-)
> Very nice systems!
> 
> Christian


Thanks :P 

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: ISO intel iPDS-100 w/8085 pod (UK)

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi Jim,

> The latter will only let you trace but have run control to stop or do other 
> actions (dump rom and memory spaces).  Sometimes there are tricks to dump the 
> memory space w/o ICE, but still nice to have an idea what is going on and 
> being able to dump registers, etc.

This is what I’m after, also being able to walk the RAM space or single step 
one of my RAM testing ROMs that I’ve put together. I’d love to be able to put 
together a RAM/ROM style board in the same vein as Dave Curran’s PET RAM/ROM 
board, still learning the skills required to be able to do that though.

> If you are after bit rot, however it might be nice to use.

Very much this, but bit rot caused by battery rot.

> I am guessing you put up the same complaint over on Twitter?

Yup :) 

> Do you have any parts of the MDS, or were you looking for the entire rig with 
> the 8085 ICE?  A friend has a ton of parts from a scrapping operation eon 
> ago, could check with him if you have a working MDS to see if he has any 
> complete ICE for that.

Unfortunately not, and given the price that they go for these days I’m very 
unlikely to get one. I don’t yet have a need to access the full ISIS 
development suite used to build the Executel software, but being able to read 
the source code would be very handy in watching the machine working with the 
LA, I’ve found quite a few faults with them between the analyser and scope.

Keir Fraser’s Greaseweazle should be capable of reading 8” floppies and the 
tools are available to translate the output file into a working disk image I 
can extract the source files from - the floppies look to have been kept in a 
reasonable environment and haven’t gone obviously mouldy yet.

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

ISO intel iPDS-100 w/8085 pod (UK)

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

I just got pipped on an auction for one of these last night, clearly someone 
needed it more than me and I hope it was for a real usage reason and not just 
to add to their collection of MDS-related machines.

I’ve been looking for an 8085 ICE for ages now to help troubleshoot my STC 
Executel phone systems so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to get my hands 
on one but hey, that’s how auctions work. This one also has an external 37 pin 
floppy interface so I was hoping I could hook up an 8” drive to be able to read 
the Executel source floppy disks I have.

Does anyone have one in the UK they don’t need/taking up too much space etc?

This weekend I’ll be investigating getting a Greaseweazle running with an 8” 
drive now that I have all the components to power my Shugart 860.

(I now await comments along the lines of ‘what do you need an ICE for when you 
have a DMM, scope and LA - easy answer: the whole environment was designed on 
an MDS80 so it would be fun)

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: FTAG: AlphaServer DS15, Sun T5140, Sun Blade 10, HP Proliant DL380 G7, VT220 [London, UK]

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi Andrew,

My Mrs will batter me, but if nobody steps up for the Alphaserver and VT220 I’m 
only a couple of hours from you so will gladly give them a new home.

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


> On 21 Apr 2021, at 13:27, Andrew Luke Nesbit via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> Hello all again,
> 
> With a heavy heart I need to find a new home for the following beautiful 
> hardware:
> 
> -   AlphaServer DS15 server
> -   Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 1U rack server
> -   Sun Blade 10 mini tower
> -   HP Proliant DL380 G7 2U rack server
> -   DEC VT220 with screen, keyboard, and various adapter cables
> 
> Please note that the Sun T5140 and HP DL380 are deep (700mm for purposes of 
> installation in a rack).
> 
> I'm starting a new job next week and intend to focus on that and my family.  
> I've stopped working on various projects and I am vacating my studio 
> workshop, so I have a lot of things to give away or sell.
> 
> The above items are all FREE FOR COLLECTION ONLY (a car will be fine to 
> transport the above items).
> 
> I am located in London, UK.  Post code is N15 4QL (Seven Sisters and 
> Tottenham Hale) in Haringey, London.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Andrew

Re: David Gesswein's MFM emulator on the DEC Professional

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 16 Jan 2021, at 22:32, Paul Koning via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I just completed a set of tests of David's MFM emulator on my Pro 380.
> 
> Summary: everything works right.  Very impressive device.  My compliments to 
> David for an amazing piece of engineering.
> 
> Details:
> 
> 1. I built and tested it (rev C board) per the instructions and all that 
> worked nicely.  A few minor points in the instructions, quickly clarified by 
> David and already updated on the web page.  I used an old 2 MB BeagleBone 
> Black (the kind that was shipped some years ago with the abandoned Angstrom 
> distribution), that fits just fine.

Oh hells, I’m just drawing up a cape for an old 2GB BBB for my second DECbox 
project but this might be a better use for it and I can get a PocketBeagle to 
use on the DECbox instead.

For those that may not have heard of it, DECbox is a BBB-based emulator that 
fits inside a VT100 and using simh will emulate your favourite anything that 
uses a serial terminal.

http://binarydinosaurs.co .uk/Museum/Decbox

That’s my first one, the 2nd one will go inside one of my VT220s, or even a 240.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Bendix G-15 and Control Data 160 console on ebay

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 6 Jan 2021, at 08:46, Adrian Stoness via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> how come when ever  people post these numbers can never find the item
> 

http://ebay.com/itm/203239156838 
http://ebay .com/itm/203239181341


>> ebay numbers 203239156838 and 203239181341
>> Not affiliated with the seller. Just saw the listings - can't believe that
>> such cool systems are still stored in some warehouses in the U.S. for
>> business purposes ...
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Pierre
>> 
>> 
>> -
>> http://www.digitalheritage.de
>> 

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Zerox System 60

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hello folks,

I’ll get the ‘happy new year’ in now because later on I’ll probably be in bed :)

Does anyone remember the Zerox System 60? There’s an ebay listing for one and a 
friend of mine says the PC shop he worked for back in the 90s had a bunch of 
them but no info could be found then or now.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-II-with-extras-disk-drives-graphics-tablet-Xerox/164616695482
 


Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Curt Vendel

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Folks,

I first heard this last night (UK time) but from an unconfirmed source so I 
waited until this morning and woke to find a tweet from AtariAge confirming it. 
Seems that Curt Vendel of the Atari History Museum amongst others passed away 
unexpectedly yesterday.

Sending condolences to his family and everyone who knew him. Taken far too 
soon. RIP Curt. 

https://twitter.com/AtariAge/status/1300547070034620417

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: AlphaServer 2100s available

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 27 Jul 2020, at 17:06, Michael-John Turner via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 08:58:22PM +0100, Antonio Carlini via cctalk wrote:
>> I can't find the weight in any of my references right now but they are very 
>> heavy. Three people can move them up a slight slope with some effort but you 
>> would not successfully lift it into a car (assuming that it would fit). I'm 
>> planning to dismantle them to move them (i.e.  remove PSU/PSUs etc. until 
>> they are light enough to move). A tail-lift would probably be the sane way 
>> to go (and is, indeed, how they got to their current location.
> 
> It was probably youthful stupidity, but I transported an AlphaServer 2100 in 
> my VW Golf 4 back in the day. I also lifted it out myself (luckily it was on 
> castors so just needed to make it out of the car). Sadly the machine later 
> died but I passed it on to a fellow Alpha-owner who stripped it for parts.
> 
> Glad you managed to find homes for all three of them.
> 
> Cheers, MJ
> -- 
> Michael-John Turner * m...@mjturner.net * http://mjturner.net/ 


That reminds me of the time I was transporting a Dodge box (Alpha 4100) between 
customer sites in a London borough. There were 3 machines, a pair of 4100s and 
a 2100. 3 of us got the 2100 and a 4100 into the van we had for this task but 
the 3rd machine wouldn’t fit. No problem, I have a big estate car (station 
wagon) so could put it in the back of that.

I strapped it in with occy straps (the elasticated type) and put the brakes on 
the front wheels but the thing was so heavy that when the car moved forwards 
the machine didn’t and burst through the back window. A small girl out on the 
street said ‘look Mum, that man’s broken his window!’

Fun times. At the other end we got out the Henry Hoover to suck up the glass 
and switched on, machine worked fine and didn’t hiccup until it was 
decommissioned a few years later.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Compaq Smart Array 3200 Controller as a SCSI Controller

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 14 Jul 2020, at 18:47, Ali via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> This may be a bit too new for this list but I thought what the heck - maybe
> one of you Compaq/DEC/HP guys would know:
> 
> Is there any reason a Smart Array controller can't be used as a simple SCSI
> controller? I.E. No array, just using it to drive a tape library? TIA!
> 

Nope. I don’t remember any Smart Array controllers supporting passthrough tapes 
until much later on. You just need a Wide Ultra 2 or 3 adapter for libraries, 
eg 154457-B21. There’s no mention of tape support in the install manual either.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Malfunctioning VT240 - help please

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 11 Jun 2020, at 15:14, Charles via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> =
> 
> Thanks for the tip. I didn't see in the manuals that the keyboard light 
> pattern was actually a binary code, but that makes sense! I would have 
> expected an error message on the screen, but as I previously noted, the video 
> system itself does not seem to be working properly.
> 
> Unfortunately my logic analyzer is an ancient Tek 7D01, the equivalent of 
> stone tools rather than metal ;) It's not really suited for doing this kind 
> of work, but it's what I have... I wonder if anyone has already disassembled 
> the code?
> 
> The 4116's are soldered to the board, too. Since the memory map is shown in 
> the tech manual I could write a simple memory test and burn an EPROM.
> 
> My fear is that one of the PALs has altered itself from tin-whisker migration 
> (fuse regrowth) :(
> 


You’ve just mentioned the magic 4116 word, I’d bet some of your dollars that 
it’s either one of those that’s gone south or the -5V required to run them

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 26 May 2020, at 12:57, Liam Proven via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 25 May 2020 at 23:17, Adrian Graham via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Wait, PETs didn’t have graphics and Tic Tac Toe didn’t exist? Where did you 
>> LIVE?
> 
> The _name_ was new to me.
> 
> & the Isle of Man. :-)
> 

Suddenly your comments about Trash-80s and MSX machines makes perfect sense too 
:) 

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 25 May 2020, at 20:58, Al Kossow via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On 5/25/20 11:51 AM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> For proper niche see the RCA-1802 powered COMX-35.
> 
> There is some talk of building a replica
> 
> https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1264585081659641857
> 
> 


Oh! Yes, I spotted that but didn’t reply, thanks for reminding me!

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 25 May 2020, at 15:17, Liam Proven via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> Since we don't have anything called Tic-tac-toe in the UK -- the game
> is called "Noughts and Crosses" -- it took me a little while to work
> out what it was and what it was doing, but once I did, I could play
> against it. On a 9x9 grid the game is less trivial.

Wait, PETs didn’t have graphics and Tic Tac Toe didn’t exist? Where did you 
LIVE?

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 25 May 2020, at 17:44, Liam Proven via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> And yet, despite that, there was a profusion of machines. Z80 and 6502
> and 6809. MS BASIC and MSX. The big American makes: Atari and Tandy
> and Apple. The big European makes: Sinclair, Oric, Amstrad. The niche
> ones: Sord, Spectravideo, Mattel, VTech/Laser, Dick Smith. The little
> British companies: Dragon, Memotech, Camputers, Jupiter, Elan.


Quite a few Australians might not share your view that Dick Smith was ‘niche’, 
Europeans may, largely because they’ll have never heard of him in Europe. For 
proper niche see the RCA-1802 powered COMX-35.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: FTGH - Decstation 5000 plus many extras

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 19 May 2020, at 20:43, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 19/05/2020 19:45, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
>> I think that's the screen I'd really love to have for my vt240 but alas I'm
>> too many continents away! Also not sure it'd plug in directly.  Could you
>> please tell me the model number and what the connectors look like?
> 
> 
> I think the VT240 is a base unit plus a VR201 monitor (same monitor that is 
> used by the DEC Rainbow and a few other DEC "PC" systems of that era).
> 
> The VT241 is the same base unit (with a different bezel) with a VR241 monitor.
> 
> 
> I don't know what monitor is in that picture but I don't think that the VR241 
> was ever used on the DECstation 5000 series.
> 


That’s the famously heavy Trinitron-powered VRT19, the one that was on my 
hallway floor when you came to visit in happier climes. it’s a workstation 
monitor, RGB+sync-on-green and is for pretty much anything DEC with a 13W3 
video connector. Not VT240/Rainbow. Remember me telling you about the static 
shock trick you could pull on people? :) 

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Dixie Canner CPT 8000?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 24 Apr 2020, at 23:39, Anders Nelson via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/143536589578
> 
> What in the world is this?


It’s a word processor, pure and simple. I have the later version and have kind 
of been collecting tales of the Cassette Power Typing company of Michigan - 
http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/cpt

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Monitors FTGH

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 29 Mar 2020, at 11:27, Antonio Carlini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> The following four monitors are available free for pickup in the UK (OX17 
> postcode).
> 
> 
> All appear clean but are untested. All are believed to have been functional 
> when stored but that was ~2002/2003-ish.
> 
> 
> Microvitec Cub. Seems to be in its original box.

Ah dammit, I wish I’d known you had that when you came up to relieve me of some 
tape stuff I’d rescued from work

I too have some honking great monitors to give away, including my main VRT19 
that was my DECstation then Alpha 3000 monitor at work back in the 90s. I’m 
surprised at how brown it’s gone.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: H7821 power supply in MicroVAX 3100, SCSI disk enclosures and others

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

On Fri, 31 Jan 2020 at 13:24, Peter Coghlan via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> The recent discussion on BSC protocol prompted me to dig out my Microvax
> 3100
> with DSH32 synchronous serial interface.  It had been idle in storage for
> several years and it wouldn't power up, only giving a brief flash on the
> diagnostic LEDs and a quick twitch of the fans.  There was a slight smell,
> like
> the stale air that comes out of a deflating tyre.
>



Oh hells, thanks for the heads-up. I've got quite a few of those that have
also been in storage for several years. Time to add them to 'The List'

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: DECpc 425SE

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>> Many years ago I removed the soldered coin cell from the control board of 
>> the Compaq 7000 series and replaced it with a 2032 coin cell holder, worked 
>> nicely so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work in this DECivetti monstrosity.
>> 
> 
> Well I suppose removing it means unsoldering the two tabs from the 
> motherboard rather than unsoldering the tabs from the cell, so maybe I'll 
> give that a go. Then I could work out what the battery is, get a suitable 
> holder and solder that in.

Yep. I’d never try and fasten tabs to batteries, they’re flash welded rather 
than soldered. Someone on hackaday reckoned they had a procedure to do it but 
fitting holders instead is so much easier.

> It would, however, be much more useful if a manual turned up and I could just 
> perform a system reset and get past the password that way!


I wish I could help. I only ever worked on those when they were new.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: DECpc 425SE

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>> ...
>> The button cell looks very much like it is soldered in. It's approximately 
>> 12mm in diameter. I've read numerous warnings not to go to near a button 
>> cell with a soldering iron so I'm not really keen to do that, especially as 
>> I don't know for sure that it will fix the problem.
> 
> I'm curious what the reason is for that warning.  After all, the thing was 
> soldered in to begin with; it certainly won't mind the heat.  You'd want to 
> make sure you don't short it out while doing it, of course; some insulating 
> tape might help with that.
> 


Many years ago I removed the soldered coin cell from the control board of the 
Compaq 7000 series and replaced it with a 2032 coin cell holder, worked nicely 
so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work in this DECivetti monstrosity.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Classic equipment available & my bad year.

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 8 Nov 2019, at 23:10, Dave Dunfield via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> Hello Everyone.
> 
> I have had a major health incident which means that I have been unresponsive
> for several months. As I need to move in closer to town, I will be disposing
> of what remains of my collection (Things like: Altairs, Imsa, PET 2001,
> Apple II, TRS-80s, lots of S100 carts etc.)
> 
> I have posted some preliminary information at:
> 
>   http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/sale.txt
> 
> This will be updated on a regular basis.
> 
> If you are interested in what happened to me, I have posted
> some details at:
> 
>   http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/2019.txt
> 
> Dave Dunfield


Oh wow, just wow. What a story and quick road to recovery. I’d like to join 
everyone else in passing on good wishes for ongoing bodily repairs! Your tools 
have been invaluable to me while resurrecting my CP/M machines, in particular 
my Exidy Sorcerer. Best of luck and please keep us up to date.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Original DEC logo in PostScript

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

An interesting article on adafruit about the digitalisation (hem) of the 
original hand drawn DEC logo, including the PS file itself - 
https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/10/28/the-digital-equipment-corporation-dec-logo-ancient-digitalization-found-dec-logo-nedbat/
 


This news must have done the rounds back in 2007 though,  because I have the 
file in question (declogo17.ps) on my Mac already…hmm...

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

More DEC stuff available, Newmarket UK

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hello folks,

We've had another shipment of retired DEC kit come in that's free to good
homes but it has to be either collected or earmarked for collection by
Thursday 17th October, I realise this isn't giving people much notice.

Alpha 4100 5/300, single CPU, 3GB RAM, DE450, KZPAAx2, FDDI, pedestal
enclosure with door
VAX 3100-95, 16MB RAM
DECserver 300
various DEChub900 modules
BA356 x2, no disks
TZ887 autoloader x2
VT320 + LK201
3x IBM RS6000s
DEREP ethernet repeater
DELL PowerVault 120T
External SDLT1
External TZ87

Location is CB8 7NY

Cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: DIBOL manual

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 13 Oct 2019, at 21:36, Nigel Johnson via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> If anybody still has a COS-3xx DIBOL system, I have two keys for the back 
> doors :-) DF8 and DF32
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Nigel Johnson

I have 2, assuming they both still work. I spent over 10 years as a DIBOL 
programmer before the unreasonable demands of people who didn’t understand 
coding and software development took their toll and I moved into Failed Circus. 
I’m hoping my MicroPDP 11/73 is complete because it’s a microcosm of my dev 
environment from the 80s into the early 90s.

-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Nuke Redmond!

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 7 Oct 2019, at 16:58, Ali via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> 
>> Ugh this is old and has nothing to do with what we do
>> 
>> Also is has nothing to do with what anyone is discussing.
>> 
>> The guy make exact copies of restore CDs with Dell and Microsoft
>> labels, so they were counterfeit.
> 
> In none of the stories I have read, and I admit I haven't been following this 
> closely, there has been no mention of labels being copied (i.e. logos, 
> graphics, etc.). If he did do this then yes he screwed himself royally. 
> 
> -Ali
> 


Read this. he bragged that his copies were almost indistinguishable from the 
real deal: 
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/25/pc_recycler_lundgren_jailed/ 


-- 
Adrian Graham
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

IBM System/32 available in Helsinki

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Folks,

I've been made aware by Michael Ross (who for some reason can't join this
list) that there is a System/32 available for not much money in Helsinki.
If you're 100% interested the contact is stidia...@gmail.com

Cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

RSTS/RSX manuals available in the UK

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

I’ve held onto this collection of manuals for the last 3 years and now they 
really need to go because I’m having to move house in the next 2-3 months, my 
landlady is selling up. I thought it was too good to be true being in this 
house for 7.5 years!

The RSTS manuals are V10 (1990) and there's 3 RSX-11M V4 as well as RSX DECNET. 
I don’t have the time to scan them myself otherwise I would’ve done ages ago.

I’m heading past Jim Austin’s place in a couple of weeks’ time so if nobody 
else is interested I can drop them off there if he’s up for it.

Cheers,

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: RSTS collection in the UK

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 25 Jun 2019, at 17:50, Pete Turnbull via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> Hi, Al.
> 
> This sounds slightly familiar - Jay contacted me a year or two ago about a 
> similar lot but the donor never got back to me.
> 
> Anyway, I would be happy to collect these on behalf of Jim Austin, for the 
> Computer Sheds:  http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/ 
> We'd be particularly interested in the 
> RSTS stuff, as we have very little of that.
> 

I too have a load of RSTS docs I’ve been trying to move on for a few years. 
Antonio was going to take them but ended up in the US so they’re still all in 
my hallway, you’re welcome to those too!

Cheers

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


> Please pass on my contact details.
> 
> On 25/06/2019 17:20, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
>> We received this offer, it probably makes more sense for someone in the UK 
>> to get the lot.
>> Is there someone at a collecting institution that would like to take this 
>> on? Email me and
>> I can forward your contact information to them.
>> "I have a few disk packs available if you need them. (Please note I am in 
>> the UK). I also have a range of PDP-11
>> interface boards, a mix of dual, quad and Unibus. Is there anything in 
>> particular that you need? Finally I have a mass
>> of RSTS related documentation, such as one copy of every edition of the US 
>> publication RSTS Porfessional magazine. Plus
>> copies of RSTS and RT-11 operating system manuals, from RSTS Version 4a 
>> (1974) through to Version 10.1 (mid 1990s)."
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pete
> Pete Turnbull

Re: COMX-35

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 3 Jun 2019, at 17:59, Ethan Dicks via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Jun 1, 2019 at 12:19 PM James Wilkinson via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> Anyone happen to have one for sale/trade?
> 
> I do not, but it sounds like a fun machine.  I have lots of 1802 stuff
> but not that one.
> 
> -ethan


I know of some for sale in The Netherlands, they’re NOS and don’t have a power 
supply, last price I saw them at was €350. This is why I haven’t bought one :) 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Abandoned FACOM system in Italy?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 27 May 2019, at 20:18, Jason T via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Mon, May 27, 2019 at 7:32 AM Evan Linwood via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> There doesn't seem to be mention of any recovery effort in the comments 
>> (that I could see).
>> The most interesting section is from 14:14:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrx1tK5xcAk
> 
> Oof, 5:30 is a tragic sight for any IBM terminal fan.


Or just any fan of old kit, my heart absolutely sank watching that.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Apple ][+ Keyboard

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi Mark,

I have a contact in Belgium who has made some PS2 adapter PCBs if you'd
like me to put you in contact, he was advertising them on Facebook a week
or so ago.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Thu, 23 May 2019 at 13:22, John Many Jars via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Hi Brian,
>
> That's an interesting thread.  It probably is the encoder chip as hitting
> Ctrl-Reset works.  Unfortunately Briel Computers doesn't seem to exist
> anymore. ):
>
> This seems like a temporary solution.  I need to collect the stuff to build
> one:
>
> https://knzl.at/ps2-keyboard-for-apple-ii/
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
>
> On Wed, 22 May 2019 at 17:00, Brian Marstella  wrote:
>
> > Just ran across this a few days ago on different search...
> >
> > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.apple2/kJ4SosdZTb4
> >
> > May have some helpful info.
> >
> > On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 11:56 AM John Many Jars via cctalk <
> > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> >> I feel like I'm falling down a rabbit hole with this old ][ europlus
> I've
> >> had for years.
> >>
> >> The smoke came out of the power supply, so I replaced it with one from
> >> ReactiveMicro.  Now it boots, and was working okay, until this morning.
> >> Now, no keyboard  if you hit ctrl-reset.  All other keys are
> >> ignored.
> >>
> >> Anyone have any ideas? (:
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> John (aka Mark)
> >>
> >
>
> --
> Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems:  "The Future Begins Tomorrow"
> Visit us at: http://www.yoyodyne-propulsion.net
>
> 
> "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign,
> that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." -- Jonathan Swift
>

Re: Hayes Transet Manual and Software

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 5 May 2019, at 03:57, Jason T via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Dec 16, 2018, 23:43 Jason T  wrote:
> 
>> One of my few remaining Holy Grail items, I got a Hayes Transet 1000
>> this week.  My three-part Hayes stack is now complete.
>> 
> 
> Another Transet just sold on eBay:
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/382925076475
> 
> And this one has the 5.25" PC software disk that mine did not.  If anyone
> here won the item, please make an effort to image the disk.
> 
> Interesting that the still rare but more common than the Transet
> Chronograph, from the same seller, got over $100 more.
>> 

I read that as ‘trainset’ and got derailed temporarily.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Procedure to convert a vax into a stand alone workstation in a LAN

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 2 May 2019, at 23:16, Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> Hello;
> 
> In my quest to try to see what the problem is with my vs/60, I want to 
> convert it into a networked stand-alone machine, i.e. not use clustering at 
> all.  What is the easiest way to do this? I still want it to do DECnet and 
> TCPIP.
> 
> Carlos.
> 


The easiest way is to turn clustering off, so if the machine’s running press 
the HALT button then from the Dead Sergeant prompt (>>>) do this:

>>> B/1 (or B/R5:1)
SYSBOOT> SET VAXCLUSTER 0
SYSBOOT> C

This will boot as a single node and let you log in assuming your SYSUAF.DAT 
isn’t on a clustered drive. If it is add this command after SET VAXCLUSTER 0:

SYSBOOT> SET UAFALT 1

This bypasses the main system authorisation file and lets you log in as SYSTEM 
with no password. Usually. The caveat emptor here is if the previous owners 
also used a SYSUAF_ALT file in which case it gets a little more complex.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VCF Southeast Photos

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 1 May 2019, at 22:42, alan--- via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> 
> It's a CM-2.  The problem with most CM-2s - aside not working in 2019 - is 
> most were never fully populated with card cages in all 8 hyper-cubes.  That 
> particular machine only has card cages in 2 of the hyper-cubes.  The other 6 
> are empty.  I'm not sure a machine with max 64K processors was ever actually 
> sold to a real customer.

Oh.

> The CM-2 in the photo has faux LED panels installed with LEDs spacing that 
> exactly matches the real CPU card stacks.  Each of the 4096 LEDs are 
> individually PWM'd and addressable.  The blinky pattern is generated by a 
> ESP32 which can also be WiFi and BT controlled.  Only pulls about 100 Watts 
> with that pattern running.


I suppose in this day and age that’s all I need to see since the machine itself 
would be, as William says, fantastically useless. I was definitely swooned by 
the marketing shots back in the day though.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: VCF Southeast Photos

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 1 May 2019, at 21:10, Jason T via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Last weekend I made an unannounced visit out to Roswell, GA to visit
> our brothers-and-sisters-in-hoarding at the Vintage Computer Festival
> Southeast.  They were hosted by the new location of the Computer
> Museum of America, not yet open to the public.  The show was a solid
> representation of the hobby, with a wide range of micros, minis and
> workstations as well as a few calculators and computing ephemera.  On
> the museum side, I've never seen so many Crays in once place - and
> they're not even done yet!
> 
> Here is my photo set:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/aiKGadREX511xeUt5
> (contains computers, computer collectors and one giant rabbit)
> 
> Big thanks to Earl and the gang for putting on another great VCF and
> showing me that southern hospitality.


Oh wow, a Thinking Machines CM-3 running?! That plus the PDP-12/PDP-15, aw man. 
Excellent set of pics Jason, cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Telex 20 Meg 10 platter very heavy monster drive needed drop line off list..r

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 22 Apr 2019, at 20:05, geneb via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 22 Apr 2019, ED SHARPE via cctalk wrote:
> 
>> Al,  the  drive   you mention at  its  largest   was  7.5 meg  and  6  
>> platters... notthe   one  ... an  interesting   drive  but  not  the  
>> dive   we  need  alas...  Ed#
>> 
> With all the extra whitespace, all my brain hears when I read that is William 
> Shatner.

You owe me a beer for that comment :D 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Pleas ID this IBM system....

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 6 Apr 2019, at 18:58, Adrian Stoness via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> is it me or is it sitting on a riased floor

I thought that while at the same time marvelling what great condition it all 
seems to be in, like they just turned everything off, locked the door and left 
for 40 years.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: DECserver 700 PSU fix, H7881-AA

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the links, I should’ve said I work for a DEC/HPE reseller so I can 
get replacements through work but I thought there might be some folk here 
who’ve fixed one before and might have some tips.

Cheers again

Adrian


> On 27 Feb 2019, at 18:06, Electronics Plus via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> https://shop.mitservices.com/product/digital-dec-server-700-psu-h7881-aa/
> in stock in the UK.
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Gregory
> Beat via cctalk
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2019 12:48 PM
> To: binarydinosa...@gmail.com; cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: DECserver 700 PSU fix, H7881-AA
> 
> Adrian -
> 
> ASTEC is now owned by Emerson Power (UK address below).
> Emerson Power Catalog (find the 57 watt models):
> https://www.mouser.com/catalog/supplier/library/pdf/Emersonpower_catalog.pdf
> 
> PowerClinic in Dallas/Fort Worth area 
> services a large number of Switch-Mode power supplies.
> http://portal.powerclinicinc.com/web/services
> Power Clinic Inc.
> 3732 Arapaho Rd
> Addison, TX 75001
> USA
> ==
> H7881-AA (Refurbished), $177.00 USD
> https://www.tamayatech.com/parts.php?g=H7881AA
> 
> H7881-AA Power Supply, 57 watt , $450.00 USD
> https://www.ipsystemsinc.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=630
> 
> ASTEC - Europe (UK)
> Waterfront Business Park
> Merry Hill, Dudley
> West Midlands, DY5 1LX
> United Kingdom
> Telephone: +44 (0) 1384 842 211 
> Facsimile: +44 (0) 1384 843 355
> ==
> From: Adrian Graham
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> Subject: DECserver 700 PSU fix, H7881-AA
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> My trusty DECserver has bitten the dust in a silent and non-violent way
> with the fuse still intact so has anyone got tips on troubleshooting? I
> know it's the PSU because I 'borrowed' another PSU from work and the unit
> is running again. It's an ASTEC unit under the hood, and in my experience
> of fixing the older types like the AC8151 (Memotech, TRS80 II/III, Osborne
> etc) the chief culprits on an utterly dead PSU are the input caps and/or
> the small 220uF or 330uF startup cap in the feedback circuit.
> 
> I haven't checked bitsavers etc for a schematic yet, does such a thing
> exist? 
> Hopefully the ASTEC board has a model number on it.
> 
> Cheers
> -- 
> adrian/witchy
> Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
> collection?
> t: @binarydinosaurs
> f: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
> w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
> 
> 
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
> 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Mystery old computer & terminals on eBay UK

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Go me :)  I've not laid eyes on one of those since I hefted them out of the
main computer suite in TnMOC's H-Block back in the noughties so we could
clean the room before the arrival of the ICL 2966. I hope they're still
around.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 at 11:41, Liam Proven via cctalk 
wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 at 12:24, Jonathan Katz  wrote:
> >
> > Some google shows BCL=Business Computers Limited (potentially)
>
> Foolishly I didn't read the comments first.
>
> It's one of these:
>
> http://www.ps8computing.co.uk/bcl.html
>
> --
> Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com
> Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven
> UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
>

Re: Mystery old computer & terminals on eBay UK

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

I thought that was a variant of the BCL Mollie, aka Molecular 18 but google
disagrees with me. TnMOC have 2 of them so I'll ask the volunteers.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 at 11:13, Liam Proven via cctalk 
wrote:

> I don't recognise this, but I'm no expert.
>
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113665872765
>
> --
> Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com
> Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven
> UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
>

DECserver 700 PSU fix, H7881-AA

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

My trusty DECserver has bitten the dust in a silent and non-violent way
with the fuse still intact so has anyone got tips on troubleshooting? I
know it's the PSU because I 'borrowed' another PSU from work and the unit
is running again. It's an ASTEC unit under the hood, and in my experience
of fixing the older types like the AC8151 (Memotech, TRS80 II/III, Osborne
etc) the chief culprits on an utterly dead PSU are the input caps and/or
the small 220uF or 330uF startup cap in the feedback circuit.

I haven't checked bitsavers etc for a schematic yet, does such a thing
exist? Helpfully the ASTEC board doesn't have a model number on it.

Cheers

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Ultimate FDC? (Was: IBM 6360 - Filesystem(ish) info?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hello folks,

I'm coming into this a bit late but a bloke called David Given is working
on such a floppy controller right now, it's called Fluxengine and is based
around a Cypress microcontroller that connects directly to a floppy drive
and is driven by USB. Early days as yet in that it supports IBM formats
plus Acorn BBC DFS/ADFS but since all the decoding is done in software
pretty much any format can be added and David is looking for examples of eg
C1541 floppies from the C64 as well as others.

https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Tue, 19 Feb 2019 at 23:40, William Sudbrink via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> A design that can manage Ohio Scientific as well would be nice.
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
>

tape transport drive belts

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Evening folks,

I’m bringing a Sharp MZ80B back to life and have so far fixed a horizontal 
collapse problem on the video board meaning I can see what it’s prompting for 
at boot. I remember when I first got this machine back in 2003-ish I dismantled 
it and discovered some of the tape transport had melted and gummed up the 
automatic head mechanism.

Fast forward* 15 years and I have the transport in bits again on the bench and 
I can see that one belt has melted and another is on the way to collapse. Did 
we ever find a reasonable source of replacement belts? I know a couple of 
collector friends with 3D printers have printed replacements but this is new 
tech and I need old tech :)

Cheers!

*sorry, pun intended

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

TRS80 Model 3/4 help in Fremont OH

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

I've been chatting to someone who has a TRS80 Model 4 that's giving him a
horizontal sync issue, is there anyone around the Fremont area who could
give him a hand with it?

Cheers

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: PDP-11 Memory

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 11 Jan 2019, at 23:59, Ethan Dicks via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 4:39 PM Pete Turnbull via cctalk
>  wrote:
>>> Mine are all BA23.  Wasn't the BA123 for the MicroVAX?
>> 
>> No, it was introduced for the microPDP-11 series, and only later used
>> for MicroVAX and MicroVAX-II.  There are many microPDP-11/83 machines in
>> BA123 cabinets, it was a very popular option because of the space for
>> storage devices and the extra backplane slots.
> 
> Hmm... I did not know they put the 11/83 in a BA123.  It makes sense
> since, as you say, there's room for storage devices and plenty of
> slots.


It’s going back severalteen years now but I’m pretty sure I built a Micro 73 
into a BA123, it’s a CD22 backplane after all. I still have all the cards AND 
the BA123 but I’m supposed to be turning it back into the MVII it was 
originally, back in 1986 when it was called FRUIT. 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: CDC floppy disks on Ebay.

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 9 Dec 2018, at 22:40, Brent Hilpert via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 2018-Dec-09, at 2:06 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>>> On 9 Dec 2018, at 21:40, Mattis Lind via cctalk  
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Don't know if this worth saving. https://www.ebay.com/itm/283294561797
>>> 
>>> 8 inch CDC disks from 1982. Maybe something interesting?
>> 
>> It might be just me, but those look like they’ve got great big holes cut in 
>> them?
>> 
> 
> If you're thinking of the blue 'slashes' near the horizontal middle of the 
> disks that look like the back of the pouch showing through a hole cut in the 
> disk, I think those are  actually tabs on the back of the pouch extending up 
> in front of the next disk back, kind of like file folder tabs.
> Don't think I've seen pouches with that before but probably intended to make 
> it easy to grab a disk by the pouch when they're all down in the box.
> Look at the magnified view of the 3rd pic.


Ah yes, that makes much more sense. I can see it now.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: CDC floppy disks on Ebay.

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 9 Dec 2018, at 21:40, Mattis Lind via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Don't know if this worth saving. https://www.ebay.com/itm/283294561797
> 
> 8 inch CDC disks from 1982. Maybe something interesting?


It might be just me, but those look like they’ve got great big holes cut in 
them?

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: ISO Intertec 5.25" floppy drive jumper settings

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 3 Dec 2018, at 00:22, Fred Cisin via cctalk  wrote:
> 
>>> When they went to 400K 40 cylinder MFM DSDD / double sided, double density, 
>>> still 48 tpi (like the PC-DOS 360K), they chose to call that "QD" / "QUAD 
>>> DENSITY"!! ?!??  (equating "density" with capacity) WHOA! Everybody else 
>>> called THAT DSDD "Double Sided Double Density", and used "QD" / "Quad 
>>> Density" to refer to 80 cylinder Double density 96tpi!
> On Mon, 3 Dec 2018, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> So I’ve been reading :) I’m sure they weren’t doing it deliberately, hahaha.
> 
> It's hard to say.  At NCC, at the Intertec booth, they could not understand 
> WHY anybody would want to transfer files between disk formats, other than to 
> PIRATE their "proprietary software"!  They even threatened to sue me if I 
> included it in XenoCopy!
> So, they were not heavy into interoperability with other brands.

Was any manufacturer? I does seem to me that everyone deliberately made their 
CP/M format different despite using the same or similar chipsets. I was 
surprised to read in the docs for my Osborne Executive that it COULD read a 
couple of other formats.

> That was the first time that I added a format to XenoCopy while in a hotel 
> room.  (Televideo was the second!).  NCC was great.  In addition to those two 
> formats, in exchange for buying him lunch, John Draper told me everything 
> that I needed to know to add UCSD P-System formats - (I did NOT exercise with 
> him.) Intertec did not keep their promise - I could have used the free ink.

What machine were you using for hotel room coding?

> One more caveat!  Radio Shack repurposed pin 32 (SIDE SELECT) to use as their 
> fourth drive select, and did their drive select with their cable, rather than 
> the jumpers.  So did IBM, although they jumpered both drives as second drive, 
> rather than ALL jumpered as RS had done.  IBM also used them, as well as the 
> TM100-2 (DS), so there are a LOT of sources for the manuals.

This pair are jumpered as I’d expect, DS0 and 1 with a terminator block. The 
manual says they’ll work with multi-hole floppies so I’ll strip them down later 
and give them a good clean.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: ISO Intertec 5.25" floppy drive jumper settings

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi Fred,

> On 2 Dec 2018, at 23:32, Fred Cisin via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 2 Dec 2018, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> In my long ongoing quest to image and otherwise copy the hard sectored 
>> floppies with my Exidy Sorcerer I’m trying to find other floppy drives I can 
>> use with it since I don’t like relying on just one set of drives. I have a 
>> Cumana dual drive set that came with my TRS80 Model1 that I thought might be 
>> jumperable to 300rpm, indeed I can see drive activity if I try and boot.
> 
> If those were being used on a TRS80 Model1, then they are already 300RPM.

I should’ve known that.

> When they went to 400K 40 cylinder MFM DSDD / double sided, double density, 
> still 48 tpi (like the PC-DOS 360K), they chose to call that "QD" / "QUAD 
> DENSITY"!! ?!??   (equating "density" with capacity)
> WHOA! Everybody else called THAT DSDD "Double Sided Double Density", and used 
> "QD" / "Quad Density" to refer to 80 cylinder Double density 96tpi!

So I’ve been reading :) I’m sure they weren’t doing it deliberately, hahaha.

> field on the sectors on the second side, but would accept disks with correct 
> headers.
> I have heard that they used a Z80 for floppy control, but the disks are 
> consistent with a Western Digital 179x controller.

They were always touted as twin-Z80 machines. I’ve always wanted one because 
when all I had at school was a Research Machines 380Z (another twin drive CP/M 
machine) the Superbrain LOOKED like a computer even though as I’ve been reading 
tonight it was originally designed as a terminal.

> I doubt that they manufactured their own disk drives, but it is possible. 
> Look carefully at the drives for any hints of who actually made them.
> Are these "full height" (SA400) or "half height”?

You’re right. Normally with Cumana stuff I do look for a manufacturer because 
yes, they were known to me as makers of repackaged drives for the Acorn BBC 
Micro. In this case the Intertec label is a bit of a red herring and the drives 
are actually Tandon TM100-1 full height units. I’ve got the manual from a Rat 
Shack related site.

Thanks for making me look again :) 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

ISO Intertec 5.25" floppy drive jumper settings

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

In my long ongoing quest to image and otherwise copy the hard sectored floppies 
with my Exidy Sorcerer I’m trying to find other floppy drives I can use with it 
since I don’t like relying on just one set of drives. I have a Cumana dual 
drive set that came with my TRS80 Model1 that I thought might be jumperable to 
300rpm, indeed I can see drive activity if I try and boot.

Does anyone know where I might find the/a manual for the drives? They’re marked 
as Intertec 5002040 so I’ve been all over Superbrain docs and PDFs on bitsavers 
but haven’t found anything so far.

Cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: How to work out unknown PSU replacement

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 3 Nov 2018, at 01:27, Paul Berger via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Are you saying that there is a capacitor between input? output? of the 79L05 
> and the ground pins of the chips?  If so that would seem pretty normal as it 
> is usually recommended that you have capacitors to ground on both the input 
> and output side of a 3 terminal regulator.  Are the ground pins on the three 
> chips you mentioned isolated from the ground of the rest of the board?

Hi Paul,

The trace goes from power socket to pin 2 of the 79L05 and a small value cap 
which is connected to the GND plane along with pin 1 of the regulator. Pin 3 
goes directly to a decoupler then straight to those 3 chips which are isolated. 
Today I’ll break out the ’tin foil covered sponge’ method of tracing any other 
points on the board that I might have missed last night.

Cheers,
 
-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

How to work out unknown PSU replacement

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

This week I managed to get my paws on a machine that I only ever saw in ‘coming 
up!’ type magazine articles in the mid-80s. It’s made by a UK manufacturer of 
Viewdata set top boxes and home micro modems called Tandata who were a split 
from Tangerine, the company that gave us the Microtan 65 and eventually the 
Oric 1 and Oric Atmos.

Documentation on the Tandata PA is zero, if you search for it you get my Binary 
Dinosaurs page and nothing else so tonight I set about trying to work out the 
power inputs from its 4 pin socket. Going clockwise pin 1 is definitely GND/0V 
and pin 2 is not connected. Pin 3 goes to the input of a 79L05 -5V regulator 
which via a capacitor seems to be used as the GND pins for 3 CMOS 74 series 
chips. Pin 4 goes to a 7805 5V regulator.

I’ve never seen a -5V reg be used in a GND circuit so before I continue 
searching am I barking up the wrong tree? The trace literally goes from socket 
to 79L05 pin 2, output goes to a capacitor then to the GND pins on a CD74HC74E, 
CD74HC86E and CD74HC4066E. There’s a VARTA battery nearby too.

Board pic is here: http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/tandatapa-13.jpg 


Any insight much appreciated!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Astounding Asking Price

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

 >It looks nice externally, and it has the pedestal, which is nice, but the
>seller has not even give the spec or posted pics of the innards and it is
>"untested". At that price I would expect a bit more information..

Instant alarm bells to me are a seller posting a London address but the
item is 'for pickup only in Budapest, Hungary'

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Wed, 24 Oct 2018 at 16:53, Rob Jarratt via cctalk 
wrote:

> My jaw dropped when I saw this:
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223201002247?ul_noapp=true
>
>
>
> It looks nice externally, and it has the pedestal, which is nice, but the
> seller has not even give the spec or posted pics of the innards and it is
> "untested". At that price I would expect a bit more information..
>
>
>
> As it happens, I am trying to fix my 350 at the moment.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> Rob
>
>

Re: CPT boards

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 7 Oct 2018, at 00:35, Jules Richardson via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 10/06/2018 01:40 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
>> could be part of a 4200 or a VM
>> http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/small-systems-at-ricm/cpt-4200-series-typewriter
>> since the date codes are early, i'd guess the 4200
> 
> Possibly, although there are quite a few ICs with 1976 and 1977 date codes 
> which don't give the impression of being repair parts - I'm not sure what the 
> lifespan of the 4200 was. Of course the Wikipedia article is quite light on 
> details though, so perhaps there were other models not mentioned, or tweaks 
> to the 4200's design to keep it 'current' as time went on.
> 
>> Mike might be able to ID the boards
> 
> I've dumped images of the six boards temporarily here:
> 
>  http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/c1.jpg
>  http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/c2.jpg
>  http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/c3.jpg
> 
> and finally the smaller "tape board" is bottom-right in this group of misc.:
> 
>  http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/c.jpg
> 
>  (I've no idea what the others are in that photo. Top little one is Sperry. 
> There were lots of "industrial" boards in the scrap pile, though - CNC 
> control boards and the like - so quite possibly not computer-related at all)
> 
> cheers
> 
> Jules


I’ve talked to a few CPT employees over the years, see 
http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/museum/cpt/ 
 - if your haul is related to the 
4200 I’ll need to add the pics too :) 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>Did DEC offer a rack-mount or tabletop box version of the RX50 floppy
>drive, as they did with e.g. the TU58 and TK50 tape drives? I'm wondering
>how they expected the RX50 drive to be packaged when used with a Unibus
>PDP-11 via the RUX50 controller.

We had desktop RX50 and TK50 units for Micro 11/23 and 73s connected to an
RQDXE running off an RQDX3 controller. I still have a complete set that
work gave me when they retired them in the late 90s.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 at 00:50, Eric Smith via cctalk 
wrote:

> Did DEC offer a rack-mount or tabletop box version of the RX50 floppy
> drive, as they did with e.g. the TU58 and TK50 tape drives? I'm wondering
> how they expected the RX50 drive to be packaged when used with a Unibus
> PDP-11 via the RUX50 controller.
>

Re: MicroVAX I

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

I know speed wise this was the slowest VAX of the day, but mine came from a
former DEC engineer and was used as a CAD station - it had a socking great
Tektronix monitor with it that's now at TNMoC in Bletchley Park. Or at
least I hope it still is.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Mon, 13 Aug 2018 at 16:48, Zane Healy via cctalk 
wrote:

>
> > On Aug 13, 2018, at 8:22 AM, Douglas Taylor via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> > On 8/12/2018 11:36 PM, robertbeauchamp33--- via cctalk wrote:
> >> My mother is moving and her spouse has a MicroVax I he bought new back
> in 1984 for some crazy amount. I don’t see this model listed in your chart?
> Can you tell me if there is any value to this machine? He also has two
> original monitors.
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > Could be quite interesting to this community depending on how it has
> been stored since 1984 and is it complete and functional. Don't have any
> expectations for hard disks to work.  What models are the monitors?
> VT100's?  Do you have the keyboards?  Any software?
> >
> > It is an antique and the condition, along with what's inside of the box
> determine how much interest there will be.
> >
> > As far as Vax and MicroVax systems the MicroVax I was probably the
> slowest of them all, and least capable.  Their selling point was that they
> didn't need an entire room, it could be placed in a normal office
> environment.
> >
> > Doug
>
> Something that comes to my mind, what chassis were available for the
> MicroVAX I?  I’m far more familiar with the MicroVAX II.  While
> traditionally I’ve preferred the BA123 chassis, I’m rather partial to the
> BA23’s these days, as they take up about half the space.
>
> Good point on the monitor question, I was trying to figure out how/why a
> MicroVAX I would have two monitors.  Two terminals makes perfect sense.
>
> Zane
>
>
>

Re: Unknown Z80 CPU board and backplane ID anyone?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 31 Jul 2018, at 17:20, Bob Smith via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Varian made a bunch of specialized systems/Devices used in Lab environments.

Thanks to everyone who’s replied! It’s a pity we don’t have a ROM board or 
anything that might identify these boards further. It’s one of those things 
that will turn up unexpectedly and I’ll think ‘I’ve seen that board/logo 
before’ then spend ages trying to work out where I’d seen it :)


> On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 9:45 PM, Rob Doyle via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> That logo is Varian and Associates.
>> 
>> http://www.logobook.com/logo/varian-and-associates/
>> 
>> Rob.
>> 
>> 
>> On 7/30/2018 10:27 AM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi folks,
>>> 
>>> A friend of mine in the UK is looking for any info on the following
>>> boards. The CPU board is marked ‘VA 03-907023-00’ and features a Z80 with
>>> 16K RAM and an 18.432MHz crystal. The backplane is also VA and has 11
>>> 132-pin slots that aren’t all identical implying usage for different cards
>>> in those locations. Voltages are +5/-5/+12V.
>>> 
>> 
>> 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Unknown Z80 CPU board and backplane ID anyone?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 30 Jul 2018, at 23:50, Jules Richardson via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On 07/30/2018 12:27 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>> A friend of mine in the UK is looking for any info on the following
>> boards. The CPU board is marked ‘VA 03-907023-00’ and features a Z80
>> with 16K RAM and an 18.432MHz crystal. The backplane is also VA and has
>> 11 132-pin slots that aren’t all identical implying usage for different
>> cards in those locations. Voltages are +5/-5/+12V.
> 
> Those 11 slots are 100 pins, surely - the same number as the CPU board has.


Hehehehe, I looked at the silkscreen on the lower right pin and read ’66’ not 
’99’ XD. I’ve been up since 6am which is clearly having an effect.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Unknown Z80 CPU board and backplane ID anyone?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

A friend of mine in the UK is looking for any info on the following boards. The 
CPU board is marked ‘VA 03-907023-00’ and features a Z80 with 16K RAM and an 
18.432MHz crystal. The backplane is also VA and has 11 132-pin slots that 
aren’t all identical implying usage for different cards in those locations. 
Voltages are +5/-5/+12V.

Pics:

http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/tynemouthsw_2018-Jul-30.jpg 

http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/tynemouthsw_2018-Jul-30-1.jpg 

http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/tynemouthsw_2018-Jul-30-2.jpg 

http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/tynemouthsw_2018-Jul-30-3.jpg 


My duckduckgo-fu has let me down.

Cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: SMUFDDV4@1104

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 18 Jul 2018, at 22:27, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> 
> I asked this in the GOTEK thread but I think it got lost in the chatter.
> 
> Does any of this apply to the equivalent devices with the board
> 
> labeled SMUFDDV4@1104?
> 
> 
> I have a few of them and would love to make them work with
> 
> non-PCs as well.
> 

Reading this I suspect the answer’s unfortunately ‘no’

http://goughlui.com/2013/04/24/review-unbranded-1-44mb-usb-100-floppy-emulator 


-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

On 18 Jul 2018, at 03:22, Fred Cisin via cctalk 
wrote:

Could the Gotek firmware, and some drivers on PC's with "HD" or "ED"
controllers, be kludged together to get faster data transfers?


Replying to myself here but these are the current config file parameters, I
think either setting ibmpc-hdout or one of the pin2 settings will enable
faster transfers.

Drive Emulation:

   -

   *interface* = shugart | ibmpc | ibmpc-hdout | akai-s950 | amiga | jc*
   - Pin assignments of the floppy-drive interface
  - *shugart*: Shugart interface (Amiga, Atari ST, many others)
  - *ibmpc*: IBM PC interface, no output on pin 2
  - *ibmpc-hdout*: IBM PC, high-density-select output on pin 2
  - *akai-s950*: Akai S950
  - *amiga*: Drive ID hack on pin 34. Use *shugart* instead when
  possible.
 - See Amiga-specific hints
 

 for advice on this setting.
  - *jc*: Specified by jumper JC (closed = IBM PC, open = Shugart)
   -

   *host* = unspecified* | acorn | akai | ...
   - Host platform: Improves image-format detection for generic types such
  as IMG
  - *acorn*: Acorn ADFS
  - *akai*: Akai synths (S01, S20, S950)
  - *dec*: DEC (RX33, RX50)
  - *ensoniq*: Ensoniq synths (ASR/TS series, and others)
  - *gem*: General Music (S2, S3, S2R)
  - *memotech*: Memotech
  - *msx*: MSX
  - *pc98*: NEC PC-98
  - *pc-dos*: PC DOS Format (geometry determined from Bios Parameter
  Block)
  - *ti99*: TI-99/4A
  - *uknc*: UKNC, DVK (Soviet PDP-11)
  - *unspecified*: Detection based on image-name suffix only
   -

   *pin02* = auto* | nc | low | high | rdy | nrdy | dens | ndens | chg |
   nchg
   - Manually assign a signal to floppy interface pin 2
  - *auto*: Automatically determined from *interface =* setting
  - *nc*: Unused / No Connection
  - *low*, *high*: Constant low (0v) or high (5v) voltage
  - *rdy*, *nrdy*: Drive ready, or logical complement
  - *dens*, *ndens*: Density mode (HD = 0v), or logical complement
  - *chg*, *nchg*: Disk changed, or logical complement
   -

   *pin34* = auto* | nc | low | high | rdy | nrdy | dens | ndens | chg |
   nchg
   - Manually assign a signal to floppy interface pin 34
   -

   *write-protect* = yes | no*
   - Are images write protected when initially mounted?
 - Protection can be toggled by holding eject for 2 seconds
  - *yes*: Forcibly write-protect images
  - *no*: Respect the FAT read-only attribute
   -

   *side-select-glitch-filter* = 0-255 (0*)
   - Filter glitches in the SIDE-select signal shorter than N microseconds
  - Useful on some old hardware (eg. CP/M systems)
   -

   *track-change* = instant* | realtime
   - Rotational offset of data after a track change
  - *instant*: No rotation during track change
  - *realtime*: Emulate rotation of disk while track is changing
   -

   *index-suppression* = yes* | no
   - Are index pulses suppressed when RDATA and WDATA inactive?
  - Older systems may depend on constant index pulses (eg. BBC Micro)



-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

On 18 July 2018 at 08:37, Adrian Graham  wrote:

>
> On 18 Jul 2018, at 03:22, Fred Cisin via cctalk 
> wrote:
>
> Could the Gotek firmware, and some drivers on PC's with "HD" or "ED"
> controllers, be kludged together to get faster data transfers?
>
>
> Good question. I’ll ask since that could be implemented with a line in the
> config file. Keir is constantly updating the firmware to add extra features
> so it might be there already.
>
> 3" and 3.25" were also almost completely compatible with the "standard" 34
> pin interface.  Although I remember one drive that had 5V and 12V swapped
> in its 4 pin power connector!   And my 8" drives did not standardize power
> connector and requirements.
>
>
> Early Amigas had +5 and +12 swapped . I didn’t realise this and the first
> time I hooked up a Gotek to my A500 it cooked the USB stick but thankfully
> didn’t kill the logic on the board.
>
> --
> adrian/witchy
> Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
> t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
> w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
>
>
>
>

Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 18 Jul 2018, at 03:22, Fred Cisin via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Could the Gotek firmware, and some drivers on PC's with "HD" or "ED" 
> controllers, be kludged together to get faster data transfers?

Good question. I’ll ask since that could be implemented with a line in the 
config file. Keir is constantly updating the firmware to add extra features so 
it might be there already.

> 3" and 3.25" were also almost completely compatible with the "standard" 34 
> pin interface.  Although I remember one drive that had 5V and 12V swapped in 
> its 4 pin power connector!   And my 8" drives did not standardize power 
> connector and requirements.

Early Amigas had +5 and +12 swapped . I didn’t realise this and the first time 
I hooked up a Gotek to my A500 it cooked the USB stick but thankfully didn’t 
kill the logic on the board.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 17 Jul 2018, at 18:49, Grant Taylor via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I don't know if the GoTEK is itself slow or if it's a result of what the 
> computer was doing with it.  —  My only experience was trying to have a 
> Compaq System Utility Partition back itself up to the GoTEK.  The first 
> ""disk worked without a problem.  The backup routine fails complaining about 
> a file after formatting the second disk.  I suspect this may be more source 
> than the destination.

Just a question, you’re not expecting the Gotek to whizz files onto the Compaq 
are you? It may be something modern emulating a floppy drive but it also has to 
emulate the floppy drive rotational speed so it should be the same speed as a 
real drive. One thing that sometimes makes it seem slow to me is that I don’t 
have the little piezo speaker for mine so you’re getting no audible feedback, 
and with no OLED either you have no idea about which tracks its reading, etc.

Bit like watching a kettle boil :) 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>>On 07/14/2018 02:43 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:

> I love them, I see FlashFloppy has also been mentioned which is also
> excellent. Keir Fraser (flashfloppy) is constantly updating it to add new
> support for formats suggested by folk either on the facebook group or on
> the github repository. It will support a lot of image formats natively and
> can be configured as IBM or Shugart interface though only as DS0 or DS1.
>

>*nod*

>I really like that FlashFloppy will allow the same single device to
support both 1.44 MB and 720 kB floppies.

>Aside:  I've got to say, I've never really messed with the various numbers
associated with floppy drives, but the 1536 really surprised me.

>I apparently have a lot of history to learn at some point.

Since I got my first Gotek last year I've learned more about floppy drives
and disks than I ever thought would be neccesary but there's SO many
different formats out there that I never knew about. In the 80s my exposure
to floppies was all DEC so I knew about hard/soft sectored drives and that
RX50s had to be read in an RX50 drive. PC wise it was all IBM-related so a
disk from one machine would work in another (alignment issues
notwithstanding). I'd used CP/M at school but assumed all CP/M machines
used the same disk format. Wrong!

Fortunately I still find learning fun :)

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

On 14 July 2018 at 22:34, Grant Taylor via cctalk 
wrote:

> On 07/14/2018 02:43 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote:
>
>> I love them, I see FlashFloppy has also been mentioned which is also
>> excellent. Keir Fraser (flashfloppy) is constantly updating it to add new
>> support for formats suggested by folk either on the facebook group or on
>> the github repository. It will support a lot of image formats natively and
>> can be configured as IBM or Shugart interface though only as DS0 or DS1.
>>
>
> *nod*
>
> I really like that FlashFloppy will allow the same single device to
> support both 1.44 MB and 720 kB floppies.
>
> Aside:  I've got to say, I've never really messed with the various numbers
> associated with floppy drives, but the 1536 really surprised me.
>
> I apparently have a lot of history to learn at some point.
>
> They've let me bring a lot of my collection back to life.
>>
>
> Yay.
>
> I'm messing with a machine that I can likely get the floppy drive to work
> (it's only 25 years old).  But I have exactly one other floppy drive and no
> floppy disks that I trust.  So I figured that I might as well convert to
> emulation and catch up with all the images that I'm using in virtualization.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Grant. . . .
> unix || die
>

Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

 >>Does anyone have any experience with the GoTEK SFR1M44-U100 floppy drive
emulator that reads ""images from a USB flash drive?

I love them, I see FlashFloppy has also been mentioned which is also
excellent. Keir Fraser (flashfloppy) is constantly updating it to add new
support for formats suggested by folk either on the facebook group or on
the github repository. It will support a lot of image formats natively and
can be configured as IBM or Shugart interface though only as DS0 or DS1.

They've let me bring a lot of my collection back to life.

Cheers,

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

On 14 July 2018 at 18:13, Grant Taylor via cctalk 
wrote:

> On 07/13/2018 09:44 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
>
>> Actually, given that allocation is in fixed units, it would be pretty
>> simple to plug in a valid partition table and dummy FAT32 filesystem image
>> with the disk space pre-allocated on the USB flash.
>>
>
> Possibly.
>
> I would want to likely use mount the discrete images as file systems
> directly.  So if they were considered partitions and had /dev entries for
> them, I could just mount them directly.
>
> In fact, one of the tricks I found was to use a special mount command that
> did that with parameters.
>
>mount -o loop,offset=$[15*1536]k,sizelimit=1440k /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp
>
> I've got to say that I really like the idea / knowledge that loopback
> devices can be constrained to a part of a file / device.  IMHO that could
> come in handy accessing partitions within a whole drive image (via dd).
> }:-)
>
> There are more details in a comment on the following page:
>
> Link - Review: GoTek System SFR1M44-U100K USB 1000 Floppy Disk Emulator
>  - http://goughlui.com/2013/05/19/review-gotek-system-sfr1m44-
> u100k-usb-1000-floppy-disk-emulator/
>
> But I'd look at the alternative firmware--it may well use a standard
>> filesystem scheme.
>>
>
> I am planing on trying the FlashFloppy firmware.
>
> I also ordered the OLED display.  ;-)
>
>
>
>
> --
> Grant. . . .
> unix || die
>

Re: 8 inch floppies, decaying

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 11 Jul 2018, at 03:15, Chuck Guzis via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> No, no, no! Do not use isopropanol to clean floppies--you'll wind up
> with a soft oxide coating and a brown rag.  Were these mine, I'd first
> remove them from their jackets and then bake them and then clean them
> with distilled water and perhaps a couple of drops of a wetting agent
> (Kodak Photo-flo is a good) choice--a couple of drops goes a long way).
> 
> You should be good to go--at least my experience tells me that.


Hi Chuck,

What temperature oven?

Cheers,

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: 8 inch floppies, decaying

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 11 Jul 2018, at 09:33, Terry Stewart via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> Just my experience,  I once did a trial where I took two identical 5,25
> inch disks of the same batch from the same manufacturer.  These were clean
> disks which both formatted and verified just fine, but I wanted to see if
> IPA did indeed damage the disk.
> 
> One I swabbed one with 75% IPA, the other with warm water with a touch of
> dishwashing liquid.
> 
> On checking the IPA swabbed disk now showed a few damaged sectors.  The
> water/detergent one did not.
> 
> It's not scientific (just one rep) and I was quite aggressive with the
> wiping.  However, it made me steer away from IPA.  Immersing the platters
> in warm water with a touch of detergent, and gently wiping (then air
> drying) works well for me when cleaning "dirty disks".
> 
> Terry (Tez)
> 
> On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 8:17 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


Thanks everyone!

I found another box so I’ve got 20 ‘new’ ones now. I’ll try all of the above 
methods and see where it gets me. Pity I don’t have any spare jackets but my 
plan was to attempt to get the CPT to boot and since the original boot disk has 
damaged sectors 0-3 and the previous owner didn’t make a copy I’m a bit stuck 
anyway.

It was good to be able to see actual documents on the data disks with ANADISK 
though, cheers Chuck :)

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

8 inch floppies, decaying

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

Tonight I got my imaging PC to successfully read some of the 8” disks from my 
CPT8500 word processor using one of its own Tandon TM848-01 drives, sadly it 
seems the boot disk is toast but I’ve been able to dump some of the data disks 
as well as the Utilities. Since I have a box of unused disks I thought I’d try 
writing back an image but got a lot of CRC errors. Closer inspection of the 
disk itself shows this - 
http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/8inchFloppyImaging-7.jpg 
 - which looks like 
damp.

Is it actually the magnetic coating breaking down? Dare I attempt cleaning?

Just for another test I tried reading some of my DEC diagnostic floppies since 
I hoped they were RX01 format, but they error constantly so they must be RX02s.

Still, it was good to see the drive spring into life :)

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Strange Teledisk question

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> Find a copy of Anadisk and see what it reports regarding sector
> ordering.  Also, you might try "sector" mode with the "Diagnostic Read"
> function, though that requires a bit of knowledge.

I did have a look at that, now that the show we were getting ready for is 
finished I can spend a bit more time analysing. I used Anadisk to get disk 
details for ImageDisk because that’s usually the first utility I go for. It was 
just pure fluke that I suggested he re-imaged the disk with Teledisk and was 
amazed that it worked.

> Another thing to try is to grab a copy of Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk
> utility and see if it gets the copy right.  You could also image both
> disks and compare the images.

I’ll do that too. Hurray for ‘special case’ code though :) 

> People still have diskette drives?

Somebody has apparently got an HxC emulator running in a Waveterm but we didn’t 
have time to investigate that route. Because the Waveterm is still thinking 
there’s 8” drives in there it keeps the motor running constantly and only drops 
the head to read a sample. 

Cheers,

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Strange Teledisk question

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 24 Jun 2018, at 03:03, Fred Cisin via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> What kind of drives does the Waveterm use?

I mentioned that in the original message, YE-Data YD380 HD with Shugart 
interface

> What kind of disk controller?

WD FDC1793. The main board is an Eltec Eurocom II V7.

> For example:
> 96tpi (80 tracks per side) drives can read 48tpi (40 tracks per side) disks, 
> and can write them to virgin disks, but, when RE-writing them, leave part of 
> the old (wide) track alongside.  Those RE-written disks are readable by a 
> 96tpi drive, but not necessarily by a 48tpi drive.

The PC’s drive is simply the IBM version of the same drive, it’s a YE-Data 
YD380B. We format a disk using the PPG utilitiy (PPGA.EXE) then write a disk 
image to it, reread that disk with Teledisk and re-rewrite it again with 
Teledisk back to the same disk.

> PC is NEC-style FDC.

The motherboard in the PC we’re using is an Abit board containing a Winbond 
SuperIO chip, I can’t remember which variant but it seems most Athlon-based 
boards have one of these chips on, my own imaging machine is an Abit KV8Pro 
with a Winbond W83627HF. What that is based on I have no idea.

> 
> WD-style disk controllers (such as 179x) can handle post index gap smaller 
> than NEC-style can.  For reading with NEC controllers, that can often be 
> handled by masking the index pulse.
> 
> WD-style controllers can read sectors that have a WRONG number in the side 
> number field, but NEC can't ignore that field.  The good news there is on 
> formats that use a wrong number in the side number field (such as Kaypro DS), 
> the WD controller doesn't MIND if it encounters the correct number in that 
> field.

So you’re saying that the WD controller is a lot more easy-going for slightly 
awry disks whereas the NEC one is more strict? That could make sense in this 
case were we going from WD to NEC but we’re going the other way around.

> The FDADAP adapter's primary difference between a simple cable is support of 
> TG43, a signal to indicate that it is on an inner track, for 
> write-precompensation, etc.

For 8” drives yes, which at some point I will be using assuming both my 8” 
drives work, but it should also let me connect up a non-IBM drive to my PC if I 
read the description correctly.

Cheers,

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Strange Teledisk question

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

For the last few weeks I’ve been helping the owner of a PPG2.2 synthesizer get 
the ‘computer’ side of it, a Waveterm A, running.

The Waveterm is a 6809-based single board computer running FLEX that was 
designed to use 8” drives, then at some point they modified it slightly to use 
5.25” HD drives instead but changed very little - to connect up to the main 
board they made a 34-50pin adapter. The drives are YE-Data YD380 with a Shugart 
interface so without some sort of signal bender like a DBit FDADAP I couldn’t 
just plug them into a PC. 

However, the YE-Data YD380B has an IBM interface so we used one of those, same 
mechanism so we figured it should work.

All the disk images for the Waveterm have been created using programs written 
by PPG users. For some reason any disk we wrote with them wouldn’t read 
correctly in the machine itself UNTIL we made a new image of that disk using 
Teledisk 2.15 then re-wrote it back to the same floppy. My question is why 
should that make so much of a difference between working and non-working disks?

Trivia: for anyone aware of the 80s UK Music industry this very machine was 
used for the hit ‘You spin me round (like a record)’ by Dead Or Alive.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: DEC VT 420 comm cable?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 18 Jun 2018, at 21:46, systems_glitch via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I've got 1000 feet of DEC OfficeConnect flat cable, a bunch of MMJ ends,
> and the crimp dies for them, if anyone finds themselves in need of cable.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jonathan
> 

Ditto, but I’m in the UK.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


> On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 9:11 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> I have a 7-part lecture series titled "The DEC MMJ  Cable and You" I often
>> present on luxury cruise ships if you're interested.
>> Bill
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Jun 15, 2018, 7:57 PM W2HX via cctalk 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> A hearty thank you to Bill D. Dave W., Jonathan C and Warner! Everything
>>> you ever wanted to know about MMJ (and then some)! Gracias!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 

Re: Weird Lear-Siegler ADM-3A board

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 29 May 2018, at 08:10, Eric Smith  wrote:
> 
> On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 3:30 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk 
> mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:
> Wow, good spot! This one isn’t badged but we just assumed it had fallen off. 
> Just as I’m typing this he’s messaged me to say it’s actually the ADM-3A 
> ‘10th Anniversary edition’. The manual is on bitsavers:
> 
> It might have _started_ its life as an ADM-3A 10th Anniversary Edition, but 
> it isn't one any more. The PCB in the photo is the Zentec ADM3 Retrofit.
> 


Ah right, that’s good to know for any troubleshooting we may need to do in the 
future! For now it’s working nicely though.

Cheers,

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Weird Lear-Siegler ADM-3A board

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 25 May 2018, at 22:04, Adam Sampson via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> 
> wrote:
> 
> Adrian Graham via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> writes:
> 
>> A friend of mine has said ADM-3A and is baffled by the tiny board it
>> contains, not the usual ‘covering entire base’ discrete logic board
>> they normally have.
> 
> Here's a similar one that was on eBay a couple of years ago (the full
> listing has pictures of the insides):
>  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/322312097162
> 
> The September 1986 date on the case of yours means that it dates from
> around the time when Lear-Siegler sold their terminal business to
> Zentec -- is it actually badged Lear-Siegler?


Wow, good spot! This one isn’t badged but we just assumed it had fallen off. 
Just as I’m typing this he’s messaged me to say it’s actually the ADM-3A ‘10th 
Anniversary edition’. The manual is on bitsavers:

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/learSiegler/ADM_3/DP2880486F_ADM3A_UM_Apr86.pdf
 
<http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/learSiegler/ADM_3/DP2880486F_ADM3A_UM_Apr86.pdf>

I do love a happy ending to a search :) Cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Weird Lear-Siegler ADM-3A board

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

Hi folks,

A friend of mine has said ADM-3A and is baffled by the tiny board it contains, 
not the usual ‘covering entire base’ discrete logic board they normally have. 
Centre of this board is the Nat Semi NS405 ‘display processor on a chip’ which 
is obviously why the board is so small but neither of us have seen this before 
in a 3A.

Anyone else? Pic at http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/tonyADM3a.jpg 


cheers!

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: I ran across this strange modernistic? Data General ...odd? computer?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 23 May 2018, at 03:05, Ed Sharpe via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> Adrian ...  That is great to hear!   Any chance of a site photo?

Sadly not, because of the nature of the site there’s no pictures allowed.

A


> Sent from AOL Mobile Mail
> 
> On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 Adrian Graham via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> 
> wrote:
> I used to be site engineer at A Well Known British Newspaper printers, they
> have those little DGs controlling part of the press process. This was back
> in 2004, I was down there again last year to fix some old HP servers and
> those little DGs are still going strong.
> 
> -- 
> adrian/witchy
> Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
> t: @binarydinosaurs f: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
> w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
> 
> On 22 May 2018 at 12:17, Ed Sharpe via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> how many sections to it? CHM has one too but one less section than
>> ours... Ed# www.smecc.org
>> 
>> In a message dated 5/22/2018 12:34:42 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
>> cctalk@classiccmp.org writes:
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> Date: Sun, 20 May 2018 18:04:00 -0400
>>> From: Ed Sharpe <couryho...@aol.com>
>>> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
>>> Subject: I ran across this strange modernistic? Data General ...odd?
>>> computer?
>>> 
>>> While? in the warehouse I ran across this strange modernistic? Data
>>> General ...odd? computer?
>>> I do not remember buying it!? ?Ed#
>>> ?
>>> ?
>>> "https://www.smythretail.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/
>> DG10_1-300x227.jpg
>>> "
>>> 
>>> 
>> The RICM has one, but it is not on the WWW site.
>> 
>> Michael Thompson
>> 
> 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: I ran across this strange modernistic? Data General ...odd? computer?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

I used to be site engineer at A Well Known British Newspaper printers, they
have those little DGs controlling part of the press process. This was back
in 2004, I was down there again last year to fix some old HP servers and
those little DGs are still going strong.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

On 22 May 2018 at 12:17, Ed Sharpe via cctalk  wrote:

> how many sections to it?   CHM  has one  too but one less section than
> ours... Ed# www.smecc.org
>
> In a message dated 5/22/2018 12:34:42 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
> cctalk@classiccmp.org writes:
>
>
> >
> > Date: Sun, 20 May 2018 18:04:00 -0400
> > From: Ed Sharpe 
> > To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> > Subject: I ran across this strange modernistic? Data General ...odd?
> > computer?
> >
> > While? in the warehouse I ran across this strange modernistic? Data
> > General ...odd? computer?
> > I do not remember buying it!? ?Ed#
> > ?
> > ?
> > "https://www.smythretail.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/
> DG10_1-300x227.jpg
> > "
> >
> >
> The RICM has one, but it is not on the WWW site.
>
> Michael Thompson
>

Re: Rick Dickinson, ZX Spectrum designer, RIP

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 26 Apr 2018, at 22:13, Eric Smith via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 3:11 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, 26 Apr 2018, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:
>> 
>>> Those Microdrives were such a Cheese design.
>>> 
>> 
>> The American Cheese Society (industry association) would probably resent
>> that comparison
> 
> 
> I was referring to a different, non-comestible Cheese. What I stated about
> the Microdrives was literally true, not a metaphor.


From my own Sinclair page 
(http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Sinclair/index.php 
): 

"Interesting, if sad, trivia: courtesy of Andrew Owen comes a sad note - Ben 
Cheese, one of the QL Engineers has passed on.a small reminder of Ben is in 
this paragraph:
>The Microdrives whirred at different speeds too. If you took eight,
carefully selected for tone, and hooked them up to a QL (I guess an
Interface 1 would do just as well, but never saw it) you could play tunes by
turning the appropriate motors off and on. Christmas carols were popular...
this particular silliness was cooked up by Ben Cheese, an incredibly
talented and even more incredibly nice chap who was one of the QL engineers.
He also did mildly subversive cartoons for the Sinclair in-house newsletter
(WHAM!, or What's Happening At Milton), and played saxophone. With Shakatak,
on one occasion. He went on to work at Flare with some other SInclair
engineers (Martin Brennan and John Mc… um*), who had their own Z80
Spectrumalike for a while, then did various oddities including the Atari
Jaguar  and a disk 
drive chip for Amstrad that fully explored various
out-of-spec conditions in the ASIC process used to fab it."
(*John Mathieson)

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Rick Dickinson, ZX Spectrum designer, RIP

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 26 Apr 2018, at 13:47, Liam Proven via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I think if you ask virtually any British person in their late 30s, 40s or
> 50s, in anything connected with IT, what their first computer was, the
> answer would be a ZX 81 or a ZX Spectrum. It was the single range of
> machines that drove the entire computer revolution over here, and also in
> the form of a myriad clones in the Communist Bloc.

My first was a ZX80 which my Dad borrowed from my physics teacher at school. 
That spurred me on to get my own ZX81 which had just come out, then the 
Research Machines 380Z at later school, then the 48K ZXSpectrum. Amazing little 
machines for the money but I never discovered the name of the designer until 
much later.

> Later, imitators came along -- the Oric (6502) and Dragon (6809) ranges,
> for instance. And of course there were many machines that aspired to be
> better: Memotech. Camputers Lynx, Elan Enterprise, etc. All flopped to some
> degree.

You could’ve stopped after ‘flopped’ though the Oric went on to do very well in 
France and the Dragon still has a good userbase today. Strictly speaking they 
all do apart from the Lynx, but the Dragon is alive and well. The biggest 
Enterprise group is still in Hungary where the unsold machines were dumped 
after Enterprise Computers went bust in 1986.

> And that was down to Rick Dickinson, who only discovered years later how he
> had inspired whole generations of people.


Yep. RIP. I missed him doing ‘an evening with…’ last year at the Computer 
Museum in Cambridge, naturally I thought there’d be another one.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: RL Drive Terminators

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>I see some company selling them on eBay for $122.  Are they really worth
>anything like that?  I have a couple sitting around here somewhere that I


Your best indication is to look at 'sold, completed'* listings which will
show you what people are actually willing to pay rather than what a seller
thinks the item is worth.

(*assuming there ARE any for RL terminators of course)

A

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

On 20 April 2018 at 14:24, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk  wrote:

>
> I see some company selling them on eBay for $122.  Are they really worth
>
> anything like that?  I have a couple sitting around here somewhere that I
>
> don't expect to ever use again.  Just wondering if they are worth looking
>
> for to sell.  In this hobby you can always use money for new (well, old
> actually)
>
> toys.
>
>
> bill
>
>
>