Re: 8-bit Computer TV Channel Use

[Alan Hightower]

 

On 2015-06-02 11:47, Mark J. Blair wrote: 

 After that, you will need something fairly hefty at the start to find the 
 characteristics of the signal and align the sampling. Then you just need to 
 track clock drift and adjust a VCXO.
 
 I was wondering whether I could get away with tracking the clock drift 
 digitally rather than closing an analog PLL. What do you think?

For the general ADC route, I would put a PLL/clock synth on the board
in-case you have gross alignment errors on the incoming signal. The
input should be a multiple of 13.5 but you never know with clock
short-cuts on early systems. It's been a while since I've looked at the
Zynq PLLs, but usually they aren't designed for large bit depth M and
Ns. You will need one anyway to generate a 12.288 for audio and the
different output dot clocks. I've used TI CDCE906 and IDT's VersaClock
IIIs for this in other projects.

A VCXO is probably the simplest choice for clock recovery. Simple PWM
and RC filter to the tracking pin will allow you to slew the clock
150ppm or so.

As far as ZynQ, I would throw up a few warnings about the 300 MHz DLL
drop-out point on DDR3 and difficulty of routing. However I'm reminded
of the Zed board and their placement of by-pass caps in a pattern that
looked 'pretty'. Certainly not a beginner project, but you don't sound
like one. If you wanted to start with Parallella boards instead, I have
a couple trays of the SamTech mating connectors. I can send some your
way.

For SoC, it depends on the power you need to look at the signal. If I
were faced with the requirements you have created, I would start looking
at the Atmel SAMV7x line. The EVMs are starting to ship publicly and
it's the first to market for the ARM M7/Pelican core. It's has more DSP
performance in a small micro than most DSPs a generation ago. With OTG
and integrated highspeed USB PHYs, you could also ship the frame buffer
updates to a PC and support USB stick firmware update. Might be a nice
alternate solution to HDMI scaling. And it's super cheap. A number of
smaller FPGAs might do the trick depending on how complex your RTL
pipe-line is. The usual suspects, Spartan 6, MachXO2, and the new MAX10
from Altera.

-Alan
 

Anyone in SE US with a working 3B2?

[Alan Hightower]

 

Anyone in the southeastern US with a working 3B2 (any series) that would
let me connect my 3B2 bus analyzer to it? 

Thanks, 

-Alan Hightower 
 

Re: Sale with a lot of ATT 3B2 stuff

[Alan Hightower]

 

(Jerry you are not a terrible person for saying that) 

I have similar thoughts. Ebay seller twenex has had this stuff listed
for months. It's not new. He's trolling for desperate buyers. I would
hardly call this a 'sale'. I've offered him very reasonable prices on
several things he listed for crazy amounts and he's refused. I mean $200
for a single tape that will melt as soon as it's run at speed? I don't
even mind personally paying him for previously un-archived manuals and
media that I would just turn around and send to Al K. or Jason S. for
free. But he won't even take a reasonable offer from me when I tell him
they are to be archived for the greater public good. And by reasonable..
I have offered him $50 for a SVR 3.2.3.2 (V3) tape and his counter was
$150! You can download a 3.2.1 tape image on-line today. 3.2.3.2 would
be a nice patch level bonus for those few of us running V3 hardware. 

He's an eBay troll and nearing the a-hat level of wiredforservice from
my experiences with him. 

Please let us know when he wants to be reasonably compensated for his
wares as my check-book remains open. 

-Alan 

On 2015-10-28 04:01, jwsmobile wrote: 

> This is a representative auction by the vendor. Look at all of his stuff for 
> the whole story.
> 
> VINTAGE-COMPUTER-AT-T-3B2-500-600-1000-UNIX-SYSTEM-16MB-MEMORY-WESTERN-ELECTRIC
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/321811268824 [1]
> 
> The buyer of his Lisp Machine is going to be sad. The vendor has broken off 
> good to have spares and software for a working machine into separate 
> auctions. Unlike the 3B2 stuff which is all parts. Not a nice thing to do if 
> you are asking $9500 for the machine and only a few hundred more for the 
> spares. Spares such as mice, keyboard, and software restore tapes. Nice.
> 
> Thanks
> Jim
 

Links:
--
[1] http://www.ebay.com/itm/321811268824

Re: How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs?

[Alan Hightower]

 

Verilator is another good tool for doing functional/behavioral
simulation of Verilog with a C/C++ test frame-work. 

-Alan 

On 2016-06-20 17:05, Seth Morabito wrote: 

> * On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 04:19:56PM -0400, Paul Koning 
>  wrote: 
> 
>> I haven't looked for open source Verilog simulators.
> 
> I've used Icarus Verilog ('iverilog') in the past. It's pretty bare
> bones, but you can feed the output into gnuplot and make reasonable
> diagrams from it.
> 
>> paul
> 
> -Seth
 

Re: old friend is slimming down the warehouse

[Alan Hightower]

 

Does he really have a palette of AT terminals? I'm local in Atlanta
and may move them out if still available. 

-Alan 

On 2016-06-24 13:24, Todd Killingsworth wrote: 

> Seth, cont. ... and be careful what you wish for. I think that he may
> have a full 6'x6'x6' pallet of AT terminals for you :)
> 
> TK
> 
> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 1:23 PM, Todd Killingsworth <
> killingsworth.t...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Seth - I specifically asked about 3B2 boxes when I saw the AT
> terminals. Unfortunately, the guy has already cleared them out of his
> warehouse.
> 
> Todd Killingsworth
> 
> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 1:18 PM, Seth Morabito  wrote:
> 
> On Jun 24, 2016, at 7:39 AM, Todd Killingsworth < 
> killingsworth.t...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> Heh. No, guys - I've not bought the whole building!
> 
> I've got the 100+ pictures loaded up for editing, but I still have to
> resize them to jpg. No SGI, a few IBM big peripherals, some DEC VAX and Alpha 
> boxes (no PDP anything), a Sun E3K, and $DEITY's own collection of terminals 
> and keyboards.
> Terminals from IBM Mainframes and midrange, pallets of DEC terminals, HP
> terminals (or monitor/keyboard combos for HP PA-RISC machines??). Also
> oddballs like AT, Qume, Texas Instruments, WISE, etc. 
> 
> I call dibs on any and all AT terminals and 3B2 stuff! :^)
> 
> -Seth
 

Re: The AT 3B2 is still proprietary

[Alan Hightower]

 

On 2016-02-23 11:45, Chuck Guzis wrote: 

>> - *Mike's ​Honda ATC 3wheeler​ Shop​ for LIFE!!!*
> 
> Can someone explain this list reply to me what what it has to do with AT 
> minis?

1) Mike lives in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, or Alaska 
2) Mike fell off his Honda ATC 3-wheeler and hit is head really hard 
3) Spam bot that has gone self-aware and off it's pre-programmed Viagra
sales script 

I'm not sure there is a 4th choice. 

-Alan 

Re: The AT 3B2 is still proprietary

[Alan Hightower]

 

I would if I knew of an exotic wilderness plane of existence with an
observation deck. 

I've never seen one in the wild. 

-Alan 

On 2016-02-22 17:53, Chuck Guzis wrote: 

> On 02/22/2016 12:04 PM, Seth Morabito wrote: 
> 
>> Here's an interesting tid-bit.
>> 
>> I just got off the phone with the AT corporate archives, where I
>> had hoped to find schematics and internals documentation for the AT
>> 3B2. They do have it, but unfortunately they will not give access to
>> any of it because they still consider the 3B2 to be proprietary
>> information.
> 
> Speaking of AT tidbits, does anyone here collect the larger 3B systems? 
> That is, the 3B20/21/4000?
> 
> Just curious,
> Chuck
 

Re: Logic Analyser Polling ....

[Alan Hightower]

 

http://www.dreamsourcelab.com/dslogic.html [1] 

.. by a mile. 

Use it all the time. Works great. 

-Alan 

On 2016-02-20 16:31, GerardCJAT wrote: 

> Which is your favourite ? Why you like it and would recommend it ? and  
> How often you use it ?
 

Links:
--
[1] http://www.dreamsourcelab.com/dslogic.html

Re: 3B2 Diagnostics

[Alan Hightower]

 

Seth, 

'filledt' comes on every Essential Utilities Disk 1 along with the unix
kernel and OS install routines. Get a SVR3 3.0 Essential Utilities Disk
1 and run filledt from there. I just went through this last week. 

You can grab the image from here: 

http://www.3b2archive.org/archive/disks/3.0/essential_utils_r3.0/disk1 

-Alan 

On 2016-02-28 11:20, Seth Morabito wrote: 

> Hi all,
> 
> There's an image of a 3B2 Diagnostics disk floating around, but
> I'd like to try to confirm what model of 3B2 it was built for.
> 
> I'm trying to run the "filledt" program from this diagnostics disk on
> my 3B2/400 emulator, and seeing some REALLY weird behavior. There are
> several ways to transfer control in the WE32100 CPU. You can CALL a
> procedure, which saves minimal state; you can GATE to a procedure,
> which is what interrupts to, and save more state; or you can CALLPS,
> which is a full process switch and saves the most state. My simulator
> can't run the "filledt" program because it is trying to CALL a ROM
> routine that expects to have been GATE-ed to. The procedure looks
> back in the stack for the last saved PSW, which isn't there.
> 
> Sorry for the technical wall of text, but long story short: I don't
> know whether there is a bug in my simulator leading to this behavior
> (likely), or whether the 3B2 Diagnostics disk was built for the model
> 500 or 1000, which have totally different ROMs with different
> procedures at different vectors.
> 
> Does anyone have a 3B2 diagnostics disk that is 100% verified to
> have come with a 3B2/300 or 3B2/400?
> 
> -Seth
 

Re: Unix System V rel 1 on pdp-11?

[Alan Hightower]

 

In the October'85 "UNIX System V Known Problems List", which is
basically a printing of filed bug reports against System V, it lists a
'DEC' version of these SVR releases: 

SVR1.0V1 (5.0)(1.0) - Initial Release 

SVR1.1V2 (5.0.5)(1.1) - Maintenance Release 

SVR1.2V3 (1.2) - Maintenance Release 

SVR2.0V1 (2.0) - Feature Release 

SVR2.0V2 (2.0P) - Paging Release 

Each bug's machine type applicability is matched against 3B20, 3B20A,
3B5, 3B2, PDP, and VAX enumerations. I see a few places where a few
VAX11 models are called out explicitly but none specifically applying to
PDP machines. So apparently there was a 16 and 32 bit version of SVR2
supporting some versions of both PDP-11 and VAX-11 machines.
Unfortunately I don't have the entire manual scanned in yet so I can't
search for specifics. But it seems rumors of a pink unicorn abound. 

-Alan 

In 2016-03-02 04:39, E. Groenenberg wrote: 

> Hi.
> 
> When looking for Unix distro's for rhe PDP-11, I did find information
> of how to make a System II using a Unix version 7 as it's base.
> 
> I also came across some hits about the existence of System 5 Release 1
> for the PDP-11 (basically intended to be only for the 45 & 70).
> On www.archive.org [1] I did find both the System II and System 5 user
> manuals, and the S5 manuals does mention the 11/70.
> 
> So, did it indeed exists and if so, is there someone who can help me
> maybe with an image to run under SIMH?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ed
> --
> Ik email, dus ik besta.
 

Links:
--
[1] http://www.archive.org

VCF Southeast Video Channel

[Alan Hightower]

 

Our presentation series during VCF-SE events has been recorded from the
1.0 event to the 4.0 event which happened two weeks ago. In the past,
good intentions to get videos edited and posted in a timely manor have
been out-weighed by real-life demands. I'm hoping to break the cycle
starting this year. Below is the first video from the 4.0 event of
Sunday's talk by Bil Herd from early Commodore. He was scheduled in
advance, but due to a scheduling mixup, had to fly in last minute and
give an ad-hoc presentation. 

My intention is to edit and post one video every two weeks, starting
with 4.0 videos, until the entire 4, 3, 2, 1.0 backlog is cleared. I
will cross post announcements for new videos as they are posted to AHCS
list, cctalk, and VCF-SE info lists. You can also subscribe to our Vimeo
channel to get push updates as they happen. So here is the link to Bil's
great talk: 

https://vimeo.com/161861581 [1] 

Alan Hightower 

AHCS Treasurer / VCF-SE Minion 

a...@alanlee.org 

Links:
--
[1] https://vimeo.com/161861581

Re: Reading PALs

[Alan Hightower]

 

Thanks for mentioning Logic Friday. I had never heard of it. I just used
it to great effect in an unrelaed combinatorial logic reduction problem!


-Alan 

On 2017-02-18 20:37, Chuck Guzis wrote: 

> On 02/18/2017 04:22 PM, Jim Brain wrote: 
> 
>> Seems like someone on list was willing and able to read PAL16L8s and 
>> give a try to some PAL16R4s... Is that person still on list and
>> still interested? If so, please contact me off-list.
>> 
>> I am trying to restore some C64 carts, and the PAL on my working unit
>> is protected, so I cannot replicate.
> 
> If I'm the person (see my blog on vcfed.org), "reading" isn't exactly
> the right term. For purely combinatorial PALs, the technique is to
> determine the input and output assignments, then exhaustively run
> through all the combinations. Take that data and run it through a logic
> minimizer, such as Logic Friday and then use a bit of wetware to pick
> out tristate control lines and their corresponding outputs.
> 
> Not foolproof by any means--and much less so, if the device is
> registered, but very often successful.
> 
> A schematic showing the part application can be a godsend.
> 
> --Chuck
 

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Alan Hightower]

 

Being a long time Eagle user, I'll chime in too. Most responses from
KiCAD advocates miss the mark on the fundamental issue. Sure the
features are converging and I have no doubt KiCAD will catch-up. It has
already surpassed Eagle in many feature areas. But people who routinely
spend dozens of hours a week doing eCAD work (> than a hobbyist), use
their tool as a super-efficient extension of their workflow intent. To
suddenly switch to a tool with an entirely different workflow or UI
mechanics is like a right handed person trying to relearn how to do
everything left handed. It's takes a really long frustrating time. Maybe
even longer than if you didn't know Eagle, Altium, Cadence, DS5000, etc
to begin with. 

My hope is the KiCAD community would see this as an opportunity to
significantly grow the user base by adding conversion tools and UI
improvements designed to help new-comers from other tools transition
more easily; even prioritize them short-term over additional new
features. Even vi and emacs have mutual key-binding compatibility modes
designed to ease transitions - and the user base couldn't be more
divided on pride. 

I find the KiCAD UI 'clunky' and it really isn't. It's only clunky
coming from my Eagle point of view. 

-Alan 

On 2017-02-17 12:46, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote: 

> Just to add my $0.02 to this conversation. I'm an Eagle (professional) user 
> for
> well over a decade. The issue the Phillip mentioned about footprints and 
> designs
> is real.
> 
> On my last design I decided to give KiCAD a try and quickly realized that the
> large libraries of parts and footprints I have would have to be completely 
> re-done.
> That made the bar too high to switch. Most of my designs use footprints that 
> I have
> developed or are readily available. Also, many new parts vendors supply Eagle
> libraries for their parts so I don't have to develop them. I haven't seen 
> anything
> for KiCAD regarding that...which means even more work for me.
> 
> Tool lock-in is a real phenomenon not just for the "wet-ware" but also for 
> all of the
> parts libraries that exist for the tools (either vendor, community or self 
> developed).
> So without a support infrastructure for parts libraries, a tool is just a 
> "toy" regardless
> of how good the underlying implementation is.
> 
> In terms of community supplied libraries, Eagle has those too and I've found 
> that
> by and large they are junk (it's easier/quicker for me to create a part on my 
> own
> than to try and figure out what bizarre thing the contributor actually did 
> and I still
> need to check it anyway). While I haven't seen a lot of KiCAD contributed 
> libraries
> (that's part of the problem) I have no expectation that they would be better 
> than
> the Eagle contributed libraries.
> 
> TTFN - Guy
 

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Alan Hightower]

 

Not sure if you are aware, but FYI - Malcolm MacLeod with some
involvement from Kyle Owen, Jack Rubin, and others ported your code to a
ATF1508 CPLD with a minimal test board. I believe the longer term plan
was to make a full featured community project from it, but it's stalled
a bit atm. You can find the code repo here: 

https://github.com/malmacleod/omni-serial [1] 

And the Eagle files for the minimal test board here: 

https://www.retrotronics.org/svn/omniserial/ [2] 

All 5V PTH with minimal component count. However the FTDI micro-USB DE-9
shell connector violates the component height requirements. But it could
be sub'd for a 6 pin header and USB serial cable. 

-Alan 

On 2017-02-14 16:21, Philipp Hachtmann wrote: 

> On 14.02.2017 19:13, W2HX wrote: 
> 
>> Personally, i don't care about lead free solder.
> I care about lead: It's essential!
> 
>> Is there a rohs requirement for small production, non profit, prototyping 
>> project?
> Yes. At least here: You are not allowed to put anything on the market which 
> is not RoHS conform. And "putting on the market", in german 
> "inverkehrbringen" does explicitly not mean "large quantity, for profit etc." 
> Even doing it for fun and giving the product away for free is not allowed. 
> With that they want to catch the smart people who try to sell kits and 
> assemble them for free afterwards.
> 
> BTW the OmniUSB is NOT a non profit project!! I have to admit that! It gives 
> me some funding for my Eagle license and workshop equipment. But not that 
> much. And it does actually not cover a fraction of the development work. So 
> it's for fun on the one hand but officially run by my small business on the 
> other hand.
> 
> The CPLD and board design are not secret...
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Philipp :-)
 

Links:
--
[1] https://github.com/malmacleod/omni-serial
[2] https://www.retrotronics.org/svn/omniserial/

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Alan Hightower]

 

Perhaps I was unclear. It is not a direct port. It was inspired by your
board during a road-trip to VCF-E to make an easier-to-assemble design.
There is obviously no FT245 support. And just about any implementation
of logic responding as a KL8E would look very similar. The code is
available under MAIN.pld on the previous link. 

The design uses a UART and can be run up to 230 Kbps and tested up to
460 Kbps. It runs faster than the original hardware. The UART design
certainly has limitations as you point out. But it is still an
improvement on the original DEC serial hardware which most people still
use. The design goals of this board are not the same as yours. 

It was designed to be easy to assemble without SMT. While I personally
agree with your SMT comments, most people do have problems soldering
.5mm pitch leaded components - as evidenced by the number of new-run
orders you have taken. The ATF1508 was chosen after noticing it's data
sheet revealed it could source the current requirements of the omnibus;
a rare thing. 

> Using traditional RS232 somewhere in between is just stupid bullshit. It 
> completely spoils the beauty of the idea. But why should one make another 
> design? Through hole parts?!?
> 
> They just should have asked me about cooperation :-)

After your reaction, clearly... Look, no one is trying to step on toes.
It's an alternative project and fully open source. I do not belive it's
existence is harming you or the community. After reviewing the code, if
you still believe there is an outstanding IP credit issue, we will
resolve it. It is clearly NOT a derived work and does not warrant a
derived license. 

Thanks Phil, 

-Alan 

On 2017-02-15 08:55, Philipp Hachtmann wrote: 

> On 02/15/2017 12:45 AM, Alan Hightower wrote: 
> 
>> Not sure if you are aware, but FYI - Malcolm MacLeod with some
>> involvement from Kyle Owen, Jack Rubin, and others ported your code to a
>> ATF1508 CPLD with a minimal test board.
> Oh, ah! I looked into their github and the README.md.
> There is a copy of the GPLv3 and as it looks no source code. And no hint that 
> they used code from me.
> 
> That would NOT be ok!!!
> 
> Even if I have disclosed the source code, I have not licensed it under GPLv3 
> or put it into the public domain. It's a copyrighted work and I am the 
> author. And the code is currently not licensed to anyone. And nobody but me 
> has the right to license that code or parts of it to anyone.
> 
> That rant only to be clear... How something like that should happen:
> 
> 1. Ask the author to license the stuff under a free license like GPL
> (I probably would do that!)
> 
> 2. Start own project, copy and reuse as much or little as desired.
> The new project's license *must* be compatible to the license of the used 
> other code.
> You have to mention the original author ("based on ... by...", "in parts 
> based on ... by ...").
> 
>> I believe the longer term plan
>> was to make a full featured community project from it, but it's stalled
>> a bit atm.
> 
> Why?!? To have a single board KL8E replacement? Which it actually is.
> 
> OmniUSB's strong points are the following:
> 
> - HIGH speed
> - No baudrate setting
> - Direct USB connection
> - Special instructions to use really tight loops.
> - USB FIFO solution implicitely double buffered AND locked on both sides: As 
> long as you obey the teleprinter flag on the 8, you cannot create a buffer 
> overrun and lose data. On the PC's side you access the device with usual 
> blocking I/O. You can't write more data when the PDP8 has not read from the 
> FIFO. Therefore no single byte lost without thinking about it.
> Example: PDP8 does a disk dump. PC program is stopped. The pdp8 waits.
> Example: PC is sending a huge block of data to the pdp8. It just writes as 
> fast as possible. The pdp8 is stopped for an our during the transmission. No 
> byte is lost.
> 
> Using traditional RS232 somewhere in between is just stupid bullshit. It 
> completely spoils the beauty of the idea.
> 
> Of course one could add an FTDI 240x FIFO (NOT!!! NOT!!! UART) to the 
> design - then it would be equivalent to OmniUSB.
> 
> But why should one make another design? Through hole parts?!? We're living in 
> the 21st century! The company where I want to bring the stuff for soldering 
> just told me that they usually don't stock that old and clumsy 0805 
> components by default...
> 
> Soldering a 200 pin TQFP is easier than doing some wire wrap connections and 
> takes 4 minutes if you are UNexperienced. SMT soldering is easier than THT if 
> you have done it for more than one half hour! (Of course with SMT you're on 
> the way to really difficult stuff, but that's not part of the discussion)
> 
> They just should have asked me about cooperation :-)
 

Re: How do you clean your vintage computers?

[Alan Hightower]

 

One caution about isopropanol. I keep a lot of 99% around for
post-cleaning electronics assemblies, soldering, etc. I used to use it
as a general cleaning and de-greasing agent for most vintage computer
things until several plastic and a couple painted surfaces showed
changes not in color but specular reflection. It's like a change in flat
vs gloss where you could see my swirl marks, etc I made while cleaning.
I was able to mostly smooth it out later with more diluted solution, but
it surprised me. 

If using isopropanol to clean, I recommend starting with a 70% or less
(dilute with water) drug-store type solution first until you know your
surface is safe. 

Also when cleaning anything electronic, especially in dry winter, make
sure you are well grounded. If your house is built on a slab and you
have an exposed concrete floor in the lower level, consider moving your
work-shop or work-area there! 

-Alan 

On 2017-01-19 12:18, Andy Cloud wrote: 

> Hey all,
> 
> So one of my recent acquisitions is looking quite grubby, outside it just
> looks like surface dirt on the plastic, inside seems dusty/basement dirty.
> 
> My question comes in two parts:
> 
> 1. What do you use to clean the exterior plastic and/or metal if
> applicable? I'm always worried about staining the plastic using strong
> solvent... could you also include what type of cloth/sponge/anything you
> use :)
> 
> 2. You guessed it! What about internally? I've heard isopropyl is really
> good, but how do you apply it? What do you use to apply it in order to make
> the board shine as if it was just bought!? :D or if you use anything other
> than isopropyl...
> 
> I also have a bonus question, how do you ground yourself to ensure you
> don't blow a component? Is an ESD wrist strap good enough?
> 
> I absolutely love this group, really enjoyed your previous answers
> regarding rarest/unusual machines!!
> 
> -Andy
 

Re: What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

[Alan Hightower]

 

Tandy 5000 MC maybe - though it still needs a power supply rebuild and
the infamous missing Reference Disk. 

A fully expanded 3B2/1000-80 (5 CPU + 3 MPB) that isn't as rare but it
is quite fun to play with - and I do often. 

A few systems that are new in the box, stay in the box climate
controlled, and have never been handled without gloves including an IBM
5150 (16K MB), 5170, and original Compaq. 

-Alan 

On 2017-01-10 17:09, Andy Cloud wrote: 

> I thought this would be an interesting question to ask around - What's the
> rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?
 

Re: What is the most prized possession in your collection?

[Alan Hightower]

 

I have high 5 figures invested into a home soldering lab. I use a
digital video scope now, however for 5-6 years before that, I used this
scope nearly every day for mostly 0402/.5 mm pitch soldering and repair:


http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
[1] 

Along with these eye pieces: 

http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ
[2] 

The combination with swing arm allows me to move the scope anywhere on
my work bench and gives a use-able work height of up to 18 inches
underneath. 

I highly recommend it. 

-Alan 

P.S. Disregard the camera. I thought it would be useful when I bought
it, but never once used it. 

On 2017-01-13 06:02, Alexandre Souza wrote: 

> We've talked about the most expensive, the most rare, the less usual...
> 
> Now lets talk about what you love most <3
> 
> For me is the Apple IIe signed by Woz :D
> 
> What is your most prized and loved possession? :)
 

Links:
--
[1]
http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
[2]
http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ

Re: What is the most prized possession in your collection?

[Alan Hightower]

 

Doh, replied to wrong thread 

On 2017-01-14 12:59, Alan Hightower wrote: 

> I have high 5 figures invested into a home soldering lab. I use a
> digital video scope now, however for 5-6 years before that, I used this
> scope nearly every day for mostly 0402/.5 mm pitch soldering and repair:
> 
> http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
>  [1]
> [1 [1]] 
> 
> Along with these eye pieces: 
> 
> http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ
>  [2]
> [2 [2]] 
> 
> The combination with swing arm allows me to move the scope anywhere on
> my work bench and gives a use-able work height of up to 18 inches
> underneath. 
> 
> I highly recommend it. 
> 
> -Alan 
> 
> P.S. Disregard the camera. I thought it would be useful when I bought
> it, but never once used it. 
> 
> On 2017-01-13 06:02, Alexandre Souza wrote: 
> 
>> We've talked about the most expensive, the most rare, the less usual...
>> 
>> Now lets talk about what you love most <3
>> 
>> For me is the Apple IIe signed by Woz :D
>> 
>> What is your most prized and loved possession? :)
> 
> Links:
> --
> [1]
> http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
>  [1]
> [2]
> http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ
>  [2]
 

Links:
--
[1]
http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
[2]
http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ

Re: Microscope for Soldering and Inspection Work

[Alan Hightower]

 

I have high 5 figures invested into a home soldering lab. I use a
digital video scope now, however for 5-6 years before that, I used this
scope nearly every day for mostly 0402/.5 mm pitch soldering and repair:


http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
[4] 

Along with these eye pieces: 

http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ
[5] 

The combination with swing arm allows me to move the scope anywhere on
my work bench and gives a use-able work height of up to 18 inches
underneath. 

I highly recommend it. 

-Alan 

P.S. Disregard the camera. I thought it would be useful when I bought
it, but never once used it. 

On 2017-01-14 03:48, Rob Jarratt wrote: 

> Has anyone had experience of using an item like this for soldering and PCB
> inspection work?
> 
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmScope-Widefield-Binocular-Inspection-Microscope/d 
> [1]
> p/B005C75IVM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8
>  [2]
> dp/B005C75IVM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8=1484294314=8-1-fkmr0=
> AmScope+sm-3bx> =1484294314=8-1-fkmr0=AmScope+sm-3bx
> 
> At the moment I have one of these:
> http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/22w-fluorescent-magnifying-craft-lamp-a29ff [3] 
> which
> I find OK, but sometimes it gets in the way of the soldering iron and it
> isn't that easy to move it to a position and have it actually stay there.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Rob
 

Links:
--
[1]
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmScope-Widefield-Binocular-Inspection-Microscope/d
[2]
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmScope-Widefield-Binocular-Inspection-Microscope/
[3]
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/22w-fluorescent-magnifying-craft-lamp-a29ff
[4]
http://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-simul-focal-articulating-zoom-stereo-microscope-with-3mp-digital-camera.html?gclid=CI6Dxb_D4sECFc1Z7AodUx8AiQ
[5]
http://www.amscope.com/pair-of-super-widefield-20x-microscope-eyepieces-30mm.html?gclid=CNr-3bXD4sECFQ0Q7AodzjsAeQ

Re: Wanted: AT 3B2 Ethernet Card ROM images

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

I am looking for ROM dumps for the NI card as well. I've dumped ROMs
from most other cards. I've placed there temporarily here: 

https://www.retrotronics.org/tmp/3b2_romdumps.zip [1] 

I've disassembled the ones I have. They all appear to be based on the
same CIO reference firmware, mostly compiled with a C compiler, share
75% of code between them, do not support PIO access other than to return
the card id code and accept a slot number, and communicate with the host
OS through in/out FIFOs at an address in memory based on the card id. 

-Alan 

On 2017-03-26 00:26, Seth Morabito via cctalk wrote: 

> I'm trying to track down ROM images from AT 3B2 expansion cards.
> I've started with the EPORTS serial card, which I have. What I'd love
> to find is the ROM from the NI Ethernet card.
> 
> Not all ROMs were socketed. Freqently they were soldered, so I know
> that getting these probably won't be easy. If I had an NI card of my
> own I'd desolder the ROMs, but alas, I do not.
> 
> If you have these ROMs, are willing to image them, or -- and this is a
> real long shot -- if you're willing to let me borrow a card for a
> while, I'd greatly appreciate hearing from you.
> 
> Best Wishes,
> 
> -Seth
 

Links:
--
[1] https://www.retrotronics.org/tmp/3b2_romdumps.zip

Tandy 5000 MC Reference disk - found

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

After a two decade long search, the Tandy 5000 MC Reference disk used
for Microchannel config has been found. Can be downloaded here: 

https://www.retrotronics.org/download/tandy-5000-mc-reference-disk/ [1] 

-Alan 

Links:
--
[1] https://www.retrotronics.org/download/tandy-5000-mc-reference-disk/

Re: Announcing: VCF PNW

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

On 2017-07-07 17:37, geneb via cctalk wrote: 

> On Fri, 7 Jul 2017, Michael Brutman via cctalk wrote:
> 
>> Vintage Computer Federation is pleased to announce an expansion of the
>> Vintage Computer Festival series to the Pacific Northwest.
> Finally! :)

I will definitely be there. I'm just not sure how many CRTs I can cram
into the overhead compartment! 

And if there isn't a PCjr on display at this thing, someone is getting
fired! 

-Alan 

Tandy Technical Reference Manuals

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

I have several Tandy TRMs that apparently are not yet posted on-line. I
just scanned in the 4000 TRM and will upload it to the tvdog archive
today. Will take a few weeks to get the rest in. But in the meantime, if
there are any requests, I can reshuffle the order: 

Tandy 2000 Service Manual (TRM already on-line) 

Tandy 1200 Service Manual 

Tandy 3000 Technical Reference Manual Vol 1 & 2 

Tandy 3000 HL Technical Reference Manual Vol 1 & 2 

Tandy 4000 Technical Reference Manual 

Tandy 5000 MC Technical Reference Manual 

-Alan 

Re: TRS-80 Model 12 versus 16B

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

Jim, I'll have a 16B at VCF-SE this weekend. You take as close a look as
you want. It has a single slim 8" drive, an internal 15MB hard disk, and
an external 5 MB hard disk. It also has the 68K card stack with 768KB
RAM. I don't have a keyboard for it though. I bought a 16 keyboard
thinking it would work at the time; then hit the cabling problem. 

Does anyone know if the 16 keyboard circuitry will work with a 16B if I
created a custom cable? 

-Alan 

On 2017-04-25 22:56, Peter Cetinski via cctalk wrote: 

>> On Apr 25, 2017, at 10:52 PM, Jim Brain  wrote:
>> 
>> So, the 16B has the KB conn on the machine, but the KB?
>> And, the 16B has the Z80 motherboard, witht eh 68K in the cage?
> 
> 16B keyboard is the same as the 12. Cord is on the KB with a male connector. 
> Female is on the machine.
> 16B has the same main board as the 12 with 68K in the cage. Notice I use 
> "main board" as technically the cage board was referred to as the motherboard 
> in these machines.
> 
> The 6000 released in 1985 was a slightly enhanced 16B with the biggest 
> difference being the upgrade to an 8Mhz MC68000. This system allowed you to 
> run XENIX 3.x and address up to 1MB of RAM. I thought the 16B could also do 
> 1MB of RAM?

16B was factory maxed at 768k but I'm pretty sure 1MB is fine.

> Can the 6000 still run the Z80 Oses (like TRSDOS II and such)? (I assume so, 
> since you noted that all units of this entire line used a Z80 for IO)

Yes, the 6000 can run all previous software.

> Jim
 

Re: recent ebay lot of assorted ICs - did somebody on the list win this?

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

Will 310 ROMs work in a 300? I believe 310, 400, 600, and 1000 ROMs are
posted in Seth's emulator project's git hub. If not, I can resend them. 

-Alan 

On 2017-08-08 20:48, r.stricklin via cctalk wrote: 

> Folks;
> 
> I keep meaning to ask... a couple months ago, there was an eBay auction for a 
> fairly large assortment of miscellaneous ICs. IIRC there were a couple of 
> NS32016s, along with some other interesting spares. I was one of the 
> interested bidders, but did not win.
> 
> In the lot were a small number of ROM chips with silkscreens like AATKJ, 
> AATKL, AARAM, etc. These are AT 3B2 ROMs; the AATKx ones in particular are 
> the original 3B2/300 ROMs that are missing from my machine. If somebody from 
> the list won this lot and doesn't know what to do with these ROM chips... I'd 
> love to hear from you.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> ok
> bear.
 

Re: Announcing: VCF Midwest 12!

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

Is it this one? 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5574940 [1] 

Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike. If I like the girl who cares who you
like? Certainly a festive - and vintage - New Edition... 

-Alan 

On 2017-05-22 12:19, Evan Koblentz via cctalk wrote: 

>> Very cool! Wish we had one of these up here in Vancouver, BC.
> 
> Vintage Computer Federation will announce a NEW edition of the festival soon.
 

Links:
--
[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5574940/

VCF-SE 5.0 Videos Uploaded

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

[cross posted] 

I was able to find time to edit and post speaker videos from this year's
Vintage Computer Festival Southeast held last weekend in Atlanta.
Amazingly I did it within one week and not a year or more! 

Here is the speaker summary and bios from the VCFed website:
http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/vcf-se-5-speakers/
[1] 

And you can find the videos on the AHCS Vimeo channel:
https://vimeo.com/user50868990 [2] 

Don French discusses the genesis of the TRS-80 Model I at Tandy/Radio
Shack:
https://vimeo.com/216109117 [3] 

Andy Hertzfeld from Apple talks Apple II and his journey to Cupertino:
https://vimeo.com/216104204 [4] 

Zach Weddington hosts a special screening of his Viva Amiga documentary
film followed by a panel discussion moderated by Adam Spring:
https://vimeo.com/216081365 [5] 

Chuck Peddle via Skype discusses the history of the personal computer
and his current projects:
https://vimeo.com/216072422 [6] 

I've also continued to work on the 4.0 backlog. I've added David
Larsen's discussion on the Bug Book series and his computer museum here:
https://vimeo.com/216398748 [7] 

And as-posted from last year, Bil Herd discusses his early Commodore
days:
https://vimeo.com/161861581 [8] 

I still have Ray Holt, Jerry Mannock, Mary Hopper, and podcast videos
from 4.0 in my work queue. 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0 to come (Jason Scott, Robert
Uiterwyk, Jonathan Zufi, Carl Helmers, Robert Tinney, Dick Huston, Dan
Kottke, and others). But no ETA on finishing as of yet, sorry. 

There are some flaws in video (Andy's lectern mic - doh!) and audio
(damn kids!), but they turned out ok. They are all open to free
download. But please give proper attribution when sharing. 

On behalf of the entire Atlanta Historical Computing Society who work
hard every year to make this happen, thanks and enjoy! We do this stuff
for you guys! 

Alan Hightower - President 

Links:
--
[1]
http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/vcf-se-5-speakers/
[2] https://vimeo.com/user50868990
[3] https://vimeo.com/216109117
[4] https://vimeo.com/216104204
[5] https://vimeo.com/216081365
[6] https://vimeo.com/216072422
[7] https://vimeo.com/216398748
[8] https://vimeo.com/161861581

AT 3B2 list

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

A few people on the Sun help rescue list raised interest for AT 3B2
community projects. So I've created a mailing list to help segregate
traffic for detail oriented 3B2 related topics. 

Seth Morabito has invested lots of effort into adding WE3K chip set and
machine emulation to SIMH. I'm interested in building some new CIO
boards for the machines. I would also like to eventually mirror all 3B2
related information to 3b2archive.org. And other contributors and
lurkers are signing up too. Please see details in the quoted message
below. 

Thanks, 

-Alan 

On 2017-05-08 11:17, Alan Hightower wrote: 

> I've created a mailman list 3b2i...@retrotronics.org with an alias 
> i...@3b2archive.org. The list info page is here: 
> 
> https://www.retrotronics.org/mailman/listinfo/3b2info [1] 
> 
> Maybe the first order of business is to enumerate interests and identify 
> potential projects. 
> 
> -Alan 
> 
> On 2017-05-05 16:50, Seth Morabito wrote: 
> * On Tue, May 02, 2017 at 02:45:51PM -0500, Jerry Kemp 
> <sun.mail.lis...@oryx.us> wrote: [...]
> I have CC'ed Mr. Bill in this note, and I suppose ultimately, we will either
> have a new 3b2 home/mailing list, or we will need to find some other place
> to host it. 
> Have we heard anything back yet? Perhaps I'm being over-eager, but I'd
> love to see things move forward.
> 
> -Seth
 

Links:
--
[1] https://www.retrotronics.org/mailman/listinfo/3b2info

Re: The origin of the phrases ATA and IDE [WAS:RE: formatting MFM drives on a IBM PC]

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

On 2017-10-02 08:22, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: 

> I mean, why SCSI wasn't used? It would have been an established standard by 
> then, the drive complexity seems comparable to IDE/ATA (i.e. intelligent 
> commands over a parallel bus), and SCSI controllers can be extremely simple - 
> just a handful of LS logic ICs - unless you want to add loads of command 
> queuing and such (again, comparable to IDE)

The simple fact IDE is a single master to indexed slave only interaction
vs a SCSI conversation where each ID must be both an initiator and
respondent on a contentious shared bus separates the complexity quite a
bit. PIO IDE controllers can be just a few bus buffers and an address
decoder. PIO IDE slaves only have to decode a register address and
synchronously return 16-bits at a time and only while selected by a
simple strobe. 

-Alan 
 

Re: Why women were the first computer programmers

[Alan Hightower via cctalk]

 

I'm a little surprised to see a list administrator specifically calling
out a critical response to an original statement that seemed destined to
provoke one; and not including the original post and poster in the
admonishment. It may lead one to presume Jay sympathizes with the
original statement or that it is anything but an oversight. Don't rush
to that judgement. And don't rush to leave the list. Keep things on
focus and be mindful that any further comments should de-escalate the
growing uneasiness and not perpetuate it. 

Thanks, 

-Alan 

On 2017-08-24 18:29, Mike Stein via cctalk wrote: 

> Well, if all it takes to make you leave the community is *one person* making 
> a politically incorrect (albeit relevant) statement and Jay's pointing out 
> that personal attacks and name-calling are an inappropriate response, then 
> obviously list membership did not have much value for you.
> 
> Sorry to hear it; you'll be missed.
> 
> Goodbye.
> 
> m