Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Mark J. Blair
On Aug 2, 2015, at 19:10, William Donzelli wdonze...@gmail.com wrote: And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. If you are thinking about that early GRC stuff, that was silk! Oh wow, I thought it was

RE: diagnosing an Intel Series II MDS monitor failure

2015-08-02 Thread dwight
From: space...@gmail.com On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 5:52 PM, dwight dkel...@hotmail.com wrote: There we two different reference voltages on 723s. I don't recall which was which but one had to change the feedback resistors if you used the wrong one. There's a reference with a built-in

RE: diagnosing an Intel Series II MDS monitor failure

2015-08-02 Thread dwight
Well, I had to look it up. The LAS723 comes with a 2.5V reference and not a 7V. Dwight

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Chuck Guzis
On 08/02/2015 07:08 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote: And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. The schematics were secured to the inside of the radio with a length of cloth ribbon, then folded up tightly and stuffed

RE: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread tony duell
And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. The schematics were secured to the inside of the radio with a length of cloth ribbon, then folded up tightly and stuffed into a metal tube secured to the

RE: diagnosing an Intel Series II MDS monitor failure

2015-08-02 Thread tony duell
I've never found a 723 datasheet that gives a different values for either reference. Nor have I The one I had to replace on my Nicolet oscilloscope was made by Lambda. I don't recall the reference voltage but I did have to change the feedback resistors to get it to work. I seem to

Re: diagnosing an Intel Series II MDS monitor failure

2015-08-02 Thread Jay jaeger
Sounds just like the supply on my Altos. What a pain. Eric Smith space...@gmail.com wrote: I previously wrote about the monitor of my Intel Series II MDS going out, which was because the +15V DC supply tripped the crowbar. The voltage adjust was all the way to the minimum, and the voltage was

Re: Saved DEC kit

2015-08-02 Thread shadoooo
Hello Adrian, how are you? Maybe you still have the SDI disks aside for me? Any time to ship them to me? Thanks in advance! Andrea

Re: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom

2015-08-02 Thread Sean Caron
Never had a Classic but I've wrangled plenty of other Sun workstations ... in general I have always found SCSI on Suns to be very easygoing ... you generally won't get SCSI errors unless something has gone grossly awry... I assume no internal disk? If so, definitely disconnect that and give it a

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Tom Moss
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive. What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted. On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair n...@nf6x.net wrote: By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's a critical

Re: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom

2015-08-02 Thread Jules Richardson
On 08/01/2015 09:49 PM, Benjamin Huntsman wrote: Hi all! I recently acquired a SPARCclassic, which is my first bit of Sun hardware. Having an awful time getting it to boot from the CD-ROM. I have tried a bunch of different terminators and several different cables, but whenever I try to boot I

Re: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom

2015-08-02 Thread David Brownlee
On 2 August 2015 03:49:47 BST, Benjamin Huntsman bhunts...@mail2.cu-portland.edu wrote: Hi all! I recently acquired a SPARCclassic, which is my first bit of Sun hardware. Having an awful time getting it to boot from the CD-ROM. I have tried a bunch of different terminators and several different

Re: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom

2015-08-02 Thread jwsmobile
On 8/1/2015 7:49 PM, Benjamin Huntsman wrote: Hi all! I recently acquired a SPARCclassic, which is my_*first bit*_ of Sun hardware. Having an awful time getting it to boot from the CD-ROM. I have tried a bunch of different terminators and several different cables, but whenever I try

Re: This Hobby Is Actually Useful!

2015-08-02 Thread Jochen Kunz
Am 01.08.15 um 23:24 schrieb Robert Jarratt: PS A related question. I struggled somewhat with the Weller Magnastat No. 8 tip, when trying to solder leads to the ground plane, I could not get the solder to stay molten very long. Wellers are notorious for this. I had to use various Weller irons

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Pontus Pihlgren
On Sat, Aug 01, 2015 at 07:05:35PM -0400, Vlad Stamate wrote: What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? A dead rodent inside an otherwise nice looking Norsk Data ND-500 A four inch crooked nail inside a LINC-8 It is really a good idea to peak inside a

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Rick Bensene
A faded semi-nude 4x6 photo of a woman on a beach inside an IBM PC-XT that I found in a thrift shop many years ago. How or why it was in there is anyone's guess. -Rick

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Rod Smallwood
One of my first jobs at DEC was on terminal sales. The LA36 printing terminal had the logic and PSU cards mounted in the plinth. The logic card was on the back of the pull down door and the PSU inside. So easy to service it wasn't true. This compartment was quite roomy and inside fresh

Re: This Hobby Is Actually Useful!

2015-08-02 Thread Jon Elson
On 08/02/2015 10:51 AM, Jochen Kunz wrote: Am 01.08.15 um 23:24 schrieb Robert Jarratt: PS A related question. I struggled somewhat with the Weller Magnastat No. 8 tip, when trying to solder leads to the ground plane, I could not get the solder to stay molten very long. Wellers are notorious

Re: PDP-12 at the RICM (Michael Thompson)

2015-08-02 Thread COURYHOUSE
Congrats Michael! This is the first time in 24 years that an OS has been run on this system. Ed# and crew at smecc.org In a message dated 8/2/2015 7:20:02 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, michael.99.thomp...@gmail.com writes: With a lot of help from Dave Gesswein and Warren

Re: PDP-12 at the RICM (Michael Thompson)

2015-08-02 Thread william degnan
great news. hope for further success. On Sun, Aug 2, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Michael Thompson michael.99.thomp...@gmail.com wrote: With a lot of help from Dave Gesswein and Warren Stearns we were able to get the MARK12 PDP-12 tape formatting program off a LINCtape and int paper tape format. Running

Re: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom

2015-08-02 Thread Fred Cisin
Are SCSI ID numbers likely to be an issue? Which ones are most commonly used on SparcClassic?

Re: PDP-12 at the RICM (Michael Thompson)

2015-08-02 Thread Michael Thompson
With a lot of help from Dave Gesswein and Warren Stearns we were able to get the MARK12 PDP-12 tape formatting program off a LINCtape and int paper tape format. Running it showed that a diode on the field-0 core stack had failed during the week making memory in the range of 4000-5000 unusable.

Re: SPARCClassic won't boot cdrom

2015-08-02 Thread Sean Caron
Oh! And if you're using the boot cdrom mnemonic, make sure that your CD-ROM is actually set to SCSI ID 6, otherwise you need to substitute in your boot path i.e. /iommu/sbus/espdma@4,840/esp@4,880/sd@{scsiid},0 Definitely check that! Best, Sean On Sun, Aug 2, 2015 at 2:53 PM, Michael

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread William Donzelli
Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? Just wondering if I'm the exception... Just you and IBM. -- Will

Re: This Hobby Is Actually Useful!

2015-08-02 Thread Mark J. Blair
Once I tried my first Metcal MX-500 series iron, I never went back. With proper tip selection and technique, the same pencil iron will work for anything from 0201 components to PL-259 connectors. And it heats up and stabilizes in under 30 seconds from a cold start after a tip swap. I've spent a

Re: diagnosing an Intel Series II MDS monitor failure

2015-08-02 Thread Eric Smith
On Sun, Aug 2, 2015 at 10:56 PM, dwight dkel...@hotmail.com wrote: Well, I had to look it up. The LAS723 comes with a 2.5V reference and not a 7V. Cool! Thanks for the warning about it. Fortunately the Power-One supply I'm dealing with only uses normal 723s, but I'll have to bear that in mind

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread Mark J. Blair
On Aug 2, 2015, at 12:15, William Donzelli wdonze...@gmail.com wrote: Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? Just

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

2015-08-02 Thread William Donzelli
And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. If you are thinking about that early GRC stuff, that was silk! -- Will