Re: Photos from the NWA Auction

[Jason T]

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 7:07 PM, Cory Heisterkamp
 wrote:
> For those curious about the equipment that sold last week, I put together an 
> album from my brief stop on Saturday. Let me know if you have trouble viewing 
> it.
> https://goo.gl/photos/yb83SJSj67gS96n39
>
> On closer inspection it appears the documentation for that GP-4, as well as 
> some of the other computers, sold to different parties (the value being in 
> the shelving and cabinets).

:(

Do you think there's any chance to save unsold items from being scrapped?

Re: Comdyna GP-6 Analog Computer Repairs Needed

[drlegendre .]

Assuming the OP is an employee of the Christoval ISD..

Christoval Independent School District is a public school district based in
the community of Christoval, Texas. Christoval ISD has two schools -
Christoval High and Christoval Elementary.

Address: 20065 3rd St, Christoval, TX 76935
Phone: (325) 896-2520

Christoval is in west-central Texas. Too far from me to be any help, at
least in a local sense!

On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 9:28 AM, dwight  wrote:

> Where are you at and what seems to be the problem?
>
> Dwight
>
>
> 
> From: cctalk  on behalf of Bill Phillips <
> bill.phill...@christovalisd.org>
> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2016 12:38:34 PM
> To: cct...@classiccmp.org
> Subject: Comdyna GP-6 Analog Computer Repairs Needed
>
> I have a Comdyna GP-6 analog computer that I need repaired ASAP.  Anyone
> available to help me out?
>
> Bill Phillips
> wcphill...@verizon.net
>

Re: MASSBUS disk emulator (Was: Unibus controller for MFM disks)

[Ian S. King]

I've made some inquries, stay tuned

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 1:09 PM, Pontus Pihlgren 
wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 12:16:10PM -0400, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> > > From: Ian S. King
> >
> > > When I left in 2014, LCM's Massbus disk emulator was working quite
> well
> > > indeed, and was running in 'production' ... ISTR the plan was
> always to
> > > open-source the hardware and firmware, too.
> >
> > I'm interested in this (as I suspect are lots of other people with
> machines
> > that can use MASSBUS disks). Can you briefly describe what it was? Does
> > anyone know anything about the status of the plans to open-source it?
> >
> >   Noel
>
>
> Yes! While I intend to get my Massbus disks running. An emulator would
> be a great stepping stone.
>
> /P
>



-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School 
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab 

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

Photos from the NWA Auction

[Cory Heisterkamp]

For those curious about the equipment that sold last week, I put together an 
album from my brief stop on Saturday. Let me know if you have trouble viewing 
it.
https://goo.gl/photos/yb83SJSj67gS96n39

On closer inspection it appears the documentation for that GP-4, as well as 
some of the other computers, sold to different parties (the value being in the 
shelving and cabinets). 

I'm still losing sleep over that GP-4. From all appearances it was a turn-key 
setup (in theory). Unfortunately, the auction site immediately removes closed 
lots from their webpage so no idea what it sold for, or if it went to a 
scrapper. I suspect it was billed as 'cabinets of aviation equipment'. Being 3 
hours away I can't exactly run over there and pin a note on it. 

Some further digging on the net revealed a photo in the Motorola Annual Report 
1965 featuring the machine touting Moto's new ECL logic. Apparently it was 
designed for aviation simulation but included facilities for being a general 
purpose machine. -C

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Guy Sotomayor Jr]

> On Oct 17, 2016, at 2:42 PM, Dave Wade  wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> -Original Message-
>> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Guy
>> Sotomayor Jr
>> Sent: 17 October 2016 21:38
>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>> 
>> Subject: Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 17, 2016, at 1:31 PM, Dave Wade  wrote:
>>> 
> 
> I’ll likely be getting at least 3 of them (1 for the IBM 3174 and 2
> for my Symbolics 3640 and possible another 2 for my other Symbolics
>> 3640).
> 
>>> 
>>> I gather that some one has the Dave Gershwin board working with a 3174.
>> Was that you.
>>> You also need 2.88 format for the 3174 floppies. Any one modified any
>>> of the floppy emulators To work at this density.
>> 
>> Yes, that’s me but I have had issues with the emulator starting up reliably 
>> so
>> that the 3174 boots.
>> 
> 
> So still not fixed?

Nope.  Lots of other projects (including work and a major kitchen remodel).  ;-)

> 
>> Actually, the format is 2.4MB (2x 1.2MB).  It’s a 5-1/4” format instead of a 
>> 3-
>> 1/2” format.
>> 
> 
> Sorry been working on my PC Server 500, I assume the data rate is double, so 
> the existing devices are not easily modified?

I don’t know.

One of my other distractions is trying to get OS/2 (any version) installed on 
my xSeries 232 so that I can run it as a P/390 and everything is fighting me on 
that (bad RAID controller, to it not wanting to boot off of a floppy).  I 
finally gave up and purchased a copy of eComStation but that kernel panic’d 
somewhere during installation.  I haven’t even had time to put in a support 
call.  :-(

Oh and did I mention that I’ve acquired (just need to move it) an IBM 4331 
mainframe including *all* of the peripherals (3340 disk drives + lots of packs, 
1403 printer, IBM tape drives, card reader/punch, 029 keypunch, manuals, 
terminals, etc, etc)?

TTFN - Guy

RE: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Dave Wade]

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Guy
> Sotomayor Jr
> Sent: 17 October 2016 21:38
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> 
> Subject: Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM
> 
> 
> > On Oct 17, 2016, at 1:31 PM, Dave Wade  wrote:
> >
> >>>
> >>> I’ll likely be getting at least 3 of them (1 for the IBM 3174 and 2
> >>> for my Symbolics 3640 and possible another 2 for my other Symbolics
> 3640).
> >>>
> >
> > I gather that some one has the Dave Gershwin board working with a 3174.
> Was that you.
> > You also need 2.88 format for the 3174 floppies. Any one modified any
> > of the floppy emulators To work at this density.
> 
> Yes, that’s me but I have had issues with the emulator starting up reliably so
> that the 3174 boots.
> 

So still not fixed?

> Actually, the format is 2.4MB (2x 1.2MB).  It’s a 5-1/4” format instead of a 
> 3-
> 1/2” format.
> 

Sorry been working on my PC Server 500, I assume the data rate is double, so 
the existing devices are not easily modified?

> TTFN - Guy

Dave

Re: Reasonable price for a complete SOL-20 system?

[James Attfield]

> From: "Mark J. Blair" 
> Subject: Re: Reasonable price for a complete SOL-20 system?
> 
> The gunstock wood origin story sounds more plausible, but less fragrant.
> 
> --
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X 

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but speaking as an owner of probably one of
the first Sol-20's in the UK I would have to comment that the wood (which we
always thought was a nice touch) was actually quite light in appearance and
weight and if anyone had suggested wharf wood at that time I am fairly sure
the suggestion would have been met with a degree of scepticism as would the
suggestion of gun stock wood (I had achieved my marksman status by then and
had some small experience of the feel of the stock in the hand and
shoulder). For all that, I liked the SOL-20 as the best word processor on
the planet at that time (with the Electric Pencil ROM) as it took great
advantage of the VDM-1 memory-mapped display board to achieve what products
like WordStar struggled for years  to do. In fact, we often used to marry
the VDM-1 to the Horizon for that very reason - that and the fact that we
could then play ATC (Air Traffic Controller) on the North* which was a great
mapped video game unavailable to serial terminals.

It was also liked because it had a great keyboard with a good feel and, turn
and turn about, could also have the North* drives bolted on to make a great
little twin drive system. Another advantage was that we didn't have to
solder up all the boards and assemble it like the IMSAI and some of the
North* boards. I did love my IMSAI though, but the 8080 CPU was a drag as
everyone was gung-ho for the 'new-ish' Z80 even though CP/M was still in
8080-land. Then came Cromemco and everything changed with CDOS and Cromix.
People still wanted CP/M though - I recall even now assisting with porting
CP/M to a Cromemco Z2 I took down to the Byte Shop in London one weekend. Of
course, my IMSAI never flew better than when it was filled with Cromemco
boards and a 299B drive on the side :) - those lovely blinkenlighten!

Anyhoo - back to the SOL-20 - we always figured that the reason that the
wooden side panels were featured was simply because the Horizon (the Big Dog
at that time) was available with a very attractive wooden case cover for
those who preferred something other than a functional blue metal case (in
fact strangely remarkably similar to the blue of the SOL-20). Of course,
although opinion may vary, either was arguably more attractive in an office
than the metal mesh that SWTPC went with. I say this with some affection
since as I write this my foot leans against the case of my old SWTPC AC-30
cassette interface. The innards gave up the ghost long ago but I can't bring
myself to skip it as it brings back too many fond memories of a basement, an
SWTPC processor, a lovely dual 8" drive unit and FLEX.

In summary, if you don't mind an 8080 and you can get some decent drives for
it (we were never very fond of the Helios drives) a SOL-20 is a very nice,
well designed integrated system. I would have one again in a trice.

James

Re: Unibus controller for MFM disks

[Michael Thompson]

>
> Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2016 12:07:24 -0700
> From: "Ian S. King" 
> Subject: Re: Unibus controller for MFM disks
>
> When I left in 2014, LCM's Massbus disk emulator was working quite well
> indeed, and was running in 'production' to keep down the hours on the RP06
> drives.  ISTR the plan was always to open-source the hardware and firmware,
> too.
> --
> Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
> The Information School 
> Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
> Narrative Through a Design Lens
>
> Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab 
>
> University of Washington
>

I never got the Massbus disk emulator that I was promised for loaning the
LCM a board from my KS10.

-- 
Michael Thompson

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Plamen Mihaylov]

>
> Does anybody here have experience with both the DREM and David Gesswein's
> MFM emulator? I'm wondering how they compare. I have one of David's
> emulators. I have only played with it a bit, but I have been pleased with
> it so far.


I don't have any experience with DREM, but I recommend David's MFM
emulator. I use it on regular basis attached to  MVME320 controller.

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 9:32 PM, Mike Stein  wrote:

> - Original Message -
> From: "Mark J. Blair" 
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 17, 2016 1:48 PM
> Subject: Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM
>
>
> Does anybody here have experience with both the DREM and David Gesswein's
> MFM emulator? I'm wondering how they compare. I have one of David's
> emulators. I have only played with it a bit, but I have been pleased with
> it so far.
> 
> No experience myself, but FWIW several Cromemco owners have used David's
> unit successfully with Cromemco's non-standard whole-track-at-a-time
> controller and have said good things about his willingness to work with
> non-standard formats.
>
> (It's also cheaper, but apparently not available at the moment,
> unfortunately).
>
> m
>

Re: MASSBUS disk emulator (Was: Unibus controller for MFM disks)

[Pontus Pihlgren]

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 12:16:10PM -0400, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> > From: Ian S. King
> 
> > When I left in 2014, LCM's Massbus disk emulator was working quite well
> > indeed, and was running in 'production' ... ISTR the plan was always to
> > open-source the hardware and firmware, too.
> 
> I'm interested in this (as I suspect are lots of other people with machines
> that can use MASSBUS disks). Can you briefly describe what it was? Does
> anyone know anything about the status of the plans to open-source it?
> 
>   Noel


Yes! While I intend to get my Massbus disks running. An emulator would 
be a great stepping stone.

/P

RE: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Rob Jarratt]

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Mark J.
> Blair
> Sent: 17 October 2016 18:49
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> 
> Subject: Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM
> 
> Does anybody here have experience with both the DREM and David
> Gesswein's MFM emulator? I'm wondering how they compare. I have one of
> David's emulators. I have only played with it a bit, but I have been
pleased
> with it so far.


I have been using David's emulator with some success. I needed to modify it
a bit to make it work with a MicroVAX 2000 and it may still need a bit of
software work, but I am happy with it. I have the Rev A board, I believe
David is planning a new run of updated boards which have some worthwhile
convenience changes.

Regards

Rob

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Mike Stein]

- Original Message - 
From: "Mark J. Blair" 
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" 
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2016 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM


Does anybody here have experience with both the DREM and David Gesswein's MFM 
emulator? I'm wondering how they compare. I have one of David's emulators. I 
have only played with it a bit, but I have been pleased with it so far.

No experience myself, but FWIW several Cromemco owners have used David's unit 
successfully with Cromemco's non-standard whole-track-at-a-time controller and 
have said good things about his willingness to work with non-standard formats.

(It's also cheaper, but apparently not available at the moment, unfortunately).

m

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[j...@cimmeri.com]

On 10/17/2016 12:21 PM, Guy Sotomayor Jr 
wrote:

On Oct 17, 2016, at 9:58 AM, j...@cimmeri.com wrote:



On 10/17/2016 11:18 AM, Peter Cetinski wrote:

On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler   wrote:

Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/

?

Yes, I'm currently in the process of getting the DREM working with a Tandy 6000 
and Xenix.  ...

About $250?   Wish it were half that.  Seems like they could sell more than 
twice as many at half the price, and more than 4 times as many at 1/4th the 
price.

Really?  Come on guys, this stuff costs $$’s to produce and they may actually 
want to make some profit.  If you’re doing small volume stuff (10’s-100’s vs 
100,000’s - 1,000,000’s) it’s going to be a bit pricey.  Frankly, to get the 
price to drop to half ($125), you’d probably have to get 10x-100x quantity 
increase.  I know because I face the same thing when trying to produce my 
boards.  Assembly will typically double the cost of the board + components.

...

TTFN - Guy


Just saying, it'd be nice if the price could be much lower, as it's way beyond 
my budget at this point in life.Realized after posting that it doesn't 
scale down pricewise linearly due to the fixed materials cost + well-deserved 
profit margin.  Without knowing those numbers, can't accurately speculate.  But 
I do think that in some cases, more *total profit* could be had by a lower 
pricepoint.

- J.

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[geneb]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2016, Jason Howe wrote:


Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/


The device may be great, but their website is a script-laden dumpster fire. 
According to Lynx it has no non-script text to even render. Firefox with 
NoScript enabled renders a blank page as well.


I noticed that too, I keep a copy of Chrome around for just such horrid 
sites.  There's really no reason for it.


Considering there's now JavaScript versions of Cryptolocker out in the 
wild, I won't even touch it with Chrome. :)


Regardless, this looks pretty exciting to me, as I get ready to repair the 
board on my ST251-1, I wonder how much longer the old drive can realistically 
last.




The price doesn't bother me much - that's simply a reflection of 
small-volume production.  It would be nice if they'd offer it as a kit 
though.  Maybe release the firmware so folks could add support for other 
machines.


g.


--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.

ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Mark J. Blair]

Does anybody here have experience with both the DREM and David Gesswein's MFM 
emulator? I'm wondering how they compare. I have one of David's emulators. I 
have only played with it a bit, but I have been pleased with it so far.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: Looking for HP98034 / HP9895 ROM images

[Paul Berger]

On 2016-10-17 1:47 PM, Glen Slick wrote:

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 9:02 AM, F.Ulivi  wrote:

Hi everyone,

does anyone of you happen to have the images of the firmware ROM of
HP98034 module and/or of the HP9895 disk drive, please?
I'm working on implementing these devices on my MAME-based simulator of
HP9845B systems.


Where is the firmware on the 9895A? Is it in a 24-pin DIP package mask
ROM near the lower right corner of this picture?

http://www.hpmuseum.net/images/09895-66500-26.jpg

Hmm, looking in the service manual it appears there were several
versions of the controller board. Some with multiple PROMs and some
with a single ROM, and some with a Z80 and some with an MC2
(micro-CPU, the '2' is a superscript).

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/disc/07902-90030_7902_9895_Svc_Jan81.pdf

I have a 9895A. Don't know which version of the controller PCB it has
without digging it out to take a look.
Yes that would be it the unpopulated positions would be for versions of 
the controller using smaller ROMs, The one I have is the 4 ROM version 
and I am pretty sure I dumped them, I just need to find out where.


Paul.

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Jason Howe]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2016, geneb wrote:


On Mon, 17 Oct 2016, Peter Cetinski wrote:




On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:

Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/


The device may be great, but their website is a script-laden dumpster fire. 
According to Lynx it has no non-script text to even render. Firefox with 
NoScript enabled renders a blank page as well.


I noticed that too, I keep a copy of Chrome around for just such horrid 
sites.  There's really no reason for it.


Regardless, this looks pretty exciting to me, as I get ready to repair the 
board on my ST251-1, I wonder how much longer the old drive can 
realistically last.


I wonder if they can put a small speaker on the board to emulate the 
sounds of an ST251, because damn, this drive sure does like to talk to 
you.  Much like an AirCooled Volkswagen, the first time you use it, you 
think it's going to blow up, then the crazy noises become the thing that 
let you know everything is working as it shouldbut I digress.


Agree it's a little pricey, but, in the end almost certainly worth it. 
I spent far more on my first 20GB 7200RPM IDE Drive.  Also, have you 
priced a NOS MFM hard drive lately?  Can you find one?  There's joy in 
keeping all the original stuff running, but at some point that becomes 
unfeasable -- we're not there yet, but in 10 or 15 years this may prove to 
have been a good investment.


--Jason

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Guy Sotomayor Jr]

> On Oct 17, 2016, at 10:23 AM, Josh Dersch  wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 10:21 AM, Guy Sotomayor Jr 
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 17, 2016, at 9:58 AM, j...@cimmeri.com wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 10/17/2016 11:18 AM, Peter Cetinski wrote:
> On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> anybody has any experience with that:
> 
> http://www.drem.info/
> 
> ?
 Yes, I'm currently in the process of getting the DREM working with a
>> Tandy 6000 and Xenix.  ...
>>> 
>>> About $250?   Wish it were half that.  Seems like they could sell more
>> than twice as many at half the price, and more than 4 times as many at
>> 1/4th the price.
>> 
>> Really?  Come on guys, this stuff costs $$’s to produce and they may
>> actually want to make some profit.  If you’re doing small volume stuff
>> (10’s-100’s vs 100,000’s - 1,000,000’s) it’s going to be a bit pricey.
>> Frankly, to get the price to drop to half ($125), you’d probably have to
>> get 10x-100x quantity increase.  I know because I face the same thing when
>> trying to produce my boards.  Assembly will typically double the cost of
>> the board + components.
>> 
>> I’ll likely be getting at least 3 of them (1 for the IBM 3174 and 2 for my
>> Symbolics 3640 and possible another 2 for my other Symbolics 3640).
>> 
> 
> Don't, at least not for the Symbolics gear.  The DREM only works with hard
> drive controllers it knows about, and the Symbolics ain't one of them.  I
> chatted with the developers about what it would take to support them and
> they see it as being possible, but couldn't commit to it without having
> hardware on hand to test with.  And given how hard it is to get a Symbolics
> machine to even format a disk once you have a working machine, it's not
> likely to happen anytime soon.
> 

Sad.  :-(

That probably means it won’t work with the 3174 either.

It sounds like they’re not doing bit level capture/replay but actually trying
to emulate the actual format (ie knowing about how sectors and addressing
are laid out).  It make the end result (ie what’s on the SD card) a bit more
usable but it also makes the emulation dependent upon what controller is
being used.

TTFN - Guy

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Josh Dersch]

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 10:21 AM, Guy Sotomayor Jr 
wrote:

>
> > On Oct 17, 2016, at 9:58 AM, j...@cimmeri.com wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On 10/17/2016 11:18 AM, Peter Cetinski wrote:
> >>> On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi all,
> >>> anybody has any experience with that:
> >>>
> >>> http://www.drem.info/
> >>>
> >>> ?
> >> Yes, I'm currently in the process of getting the DREM working with a
> Tandy 6000 and Xenix.  ...
> >
> > About $250?   Wish it were half that.  Seems like they could sell more
> than twice as many at half the price, and more than 4 times as many at
> 1/4th the price.
>
> Really?  Come on guys, this stuff costs $$’s to produce and they may
> actually want to make some profit.  If you’re doing small volume stuff
> (10’s-100’s vs 100,000’s - 1,000,000’s) it’s going to be a bit pricey.
> Frankly, to get the price to drop to half ($125), you’d probably have to
> get 10x-100x quantity increase.  I know because I face the same thing when
> trying to produce my boards.  Assembly will typically double the cost of
> the board + components.
>
> I’ll likely be getting at least 3 of them (1 for the IBM 3174 and 2 for my
> Symbolics 3640 and possible another 2 for my other Symbolics 3640).
>

Don't, at least not for the Symbolics gear.  The DREM only works with hard
drive controllers it knows about, and the Symbolics ain't one of them.  I
chatted with the developers about what it would take to support them and
they see it as being possible, but couldn't commit to it without having
hardware on hand to test with.  And given how hard it is to get a Symbolics
machine to even format a disk once you have a working machine, it's not
likely to happen anytime soon.

- Josh


>
> TTFN - Guy
>
>

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Guy Sotomayor Jr]

> On Oct 17, 2016, at 9:58 AM, j...@cimmeri.com wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On 10/17/2016 11:18 AM, Peter Cetinski wrote:
>>> On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> anybody has any experience with that:
>>> 
>>> http://www.drem.info/
>>> 
>>> ?
>> Yes, I'm currently in the process of getting the DREM working with a Tandy 
>> 6000 and Xenix.  ...
> 
> About $250?   Wish it were half that.  Seems like they could sell more than 
> twice as many at half the price, and more than 4 times as many at 1/4th the 
> price.

Really?  Come on guys, this stuff costs $$’s to produce and they may actually 
want to make some profit.  If you’re doing small volume stuff (10’s-100’s vs 
100,000’s - 1,000,000’s) it’s going to be a bit pricey.  Frankly, to get the 
price to drop to half ($125), you’d probably have to get 10x-100x quantity 
increase.  I know because I face the same thing when trying to produce my 
boards.  Assembly will typically double the cost of the board + components.

I’ll likely be getting at least 3 of them (1 for the IBM 3174 and 2 for my 
Symbolics 3640 and possible another 2 for my other Symbolics 3640).

TTFN - Guy

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[j...@cimmeri.com]

On 10/17/2016 11:18 AM, Peter Cetinski 
wrote:

On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:

Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/

?

Yes, I'm currently in the process of getting the DREM working with a Tandy 6000 
and Xenix.  ...


About $250?   Wish it were half that.  
Seems like they could sell more than 
twice as many at half the price, and 
more than 4 times as many at 1/4th the 
price.


- J.

Re: Looking for HP98034 / HP9895 ROM images

[Glen Slick]

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 9:02 AM, F.Ulivi  wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> does anyone of you happen to have the images of the firmware ROM of
> HP98034 module and/or of the HP9895 disk drive, please?
> I'm working on implementing these devices on my MAME-based simulator of
> HP9845B systems.
>

Where is the firmware on the 9895A? Is it in a 24-pin DIP package mask
ROM near the lower right corner of this picture?

http://www.hpmuseum.net/images/09895-66500-26.jpg

Hmm, looking in the service manual it appears there were several
versions of the controller board. Some with multiple PROMs and some
with a single ROM, and some with a Z80 and some with an MC2
(micro-CPU, the '2' is a superscript).

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/disc/07902-90030_7902_9895_Svc_Jan81.pdf

I have a 9895A. Don't know which version of the controller PCB it has
without digging it out to take a look.

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[geneb]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2016, Peter Cetinski wrote:




On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:

Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/


The device may be great, but their website is a script-laden dumpster 
fire.  According to Lynx it has no non-script text to even render. 
Firefox with NoScript enabled renders a blank page as well.


g.


--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.

ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

RE: One last epay for the day, TEC terminal

[Brad H]

I was going to grab that but I've tested my wife's patience enough this month, 
between the Mark-8 boards and this teletype I have.  I would like to one day 
have a good example of a 1973 or earlier glass terminal just to show people the 
alternative to the TVT I'm building.

-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of jim stephens
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 8:52 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Subject: One last epay for the day, TEC terminal


Since some need to possibly use current loop, I was searching and thought it 
useful to bring this to people's attention.  The TEC is also one of the 
terminals in the video I posted a few days ago related to "Jobs" if you care to 
look.  I've used these and at the time the only problem I had was dropping them 
on your foot, they are not light.

the vendor says that Bitsavers has the manual, which may make this a bit 
attractive as well, saving looking all over the place for documentation.  The 
screen doesn't look great, but might be usable w/o a huge amount of work.

Another thing that ones here may be able to use is that it has the video output 
option installed, so one could drive a modern monitor, or presentation 
projector in a display situation with this one.

I think the ones we had were a bit fancier, and had a block of indicators on 
one side or the other that you could blink, this one does not.

1972-TEC-440-Serial-Terminal-/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262674442502

no affiliation, just wish I had room for it, hope someone can use it.

i'll throttle myself for a few days unless I see a random 360/50 or so for sale 
so I am not bothering those who don't like these. Apologies in advance.

thanks
Jim

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Oct 17, 2016, at 08:58, emanuel stiebler  wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> anybody has any experience with that:
> 
> http://www.drem.info/

There's a very recent thread at VCF about using one with a Tandy model 6000:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?54511-Tandy-6000-HD-with-DREM-HD-Emulator



-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Looking for HP98034 / HP9895 ROM images

[F.Ulivi]

Hi everyone,

does anyone of you happen to have the images of the firmware ROM of
HP98034 module and/or of the HP9895 disk drive, please?
I'm working on implementing these devices on my MAME-based simulator of
HP9845B systems.

Thank you.

-- F.Ulivi

MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[emanuel stiebler]

Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/

?

Re: Anyone with a CDC disk pack reader that can help Paul Vixie?

[Al Kossow]

There's one on eBay, don't know if I'd trust it.
www.ebay.com/itm/152238200965

They were sold with Intel MDS's

I've got one or two from a TI 990

They are HEAVY

They are basically IBM 5440 media.

The format is in the queue to read, along with about a dozen others of more
importance.

Be warned, Billy Pettit told me CDC/MPI built dozens of variants of that drive
for people, so you may have to wait until bit-level recovery is running 
somewhere.

The good news is they are low density low speed single platter media, so the
chances are good the data can be recovered if the platter is clean.


On 10/16/16 10:25 PM, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
> Apparently Paul Vixie's got a CDC Hawk disk pack from an Alpha Micro AM-100/T
> that he'd like to get the bits off of (he'll worry about the file system
> separately). I have a controller card in an unknown state but I don't have
> any way of reading the disk pack, so it will probably be easier to do this
> in a separate working system, which does not need to be Alpha Micro.
> 
> If you've got a means of doing this, I'll get you in touch with him.
> 

Re: Looking for a Sun Enterprise Exxxx

[Rod Smallwood]

Hi

I have a Sun Enterprise 3000 surplus to requirements.

It did boot last time I tried it.

I'm near Newbury UK

Rod Smallwood



On 17/10/2016 15:03, SilverCreekValley wrote:

Hi all,

  


Looking for a Sun Enterprise E3xxx/E4xxx – any model really. I have a few CPU 
modules and it would be great to have one of these machines up and running 
again. I’m in the UK – and can collect.

  


Reasonable price paid J

  


PM if you have anything .

  


Cheers

  


Ian



--
PDP-8/e PDP-8/f PDP-8/m PDP-8/i
Front Panels ex Stock - Order Now

Re: Altos system mislisted on Epay

[James B DiGriz]

On Sun, 16 Oct 2016 20:45:35 -0700
Steven M Jones  wrote:

> IIRC the auction copy indicated something had been done to the PSU as
> well. There was a close-up of some wires soldered to some spade lugs,
> but I don't recall seeing a good photo of the PSU itself.

IIRC, mine had a big, heavy transformer for the linear power supply.
The pictures showing the innards seem to be gone now, but that
would be low-hanging fruit. Fe, Cu, Al. 

I hope the seller merely received the unit in this condition, and
didn't gut it themselves. C'est la guerre, though, in either case.   

jbdigriz

Looking for a Sun Enterprise Exxxx

[SilverCreekValley]

Hi all,

 

Looking for a Sun Enterprise E3xxx/E4xxx – any model really. I have a few CPU 
modules and it would be great to have one of these machines up and running 
again. I’m in the UK – and can collect.

 

Reasonable price paid J

 

PM if you have anything .

 

Cheers

 

Ian

very cheap eBay.de Apple offerings

[Electronics Plus]

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html/?_saslop=1
 &_sasl=tom201513

Scroll down for a box of 5.25" floppies for Apple with no bids yet.

 

Cindy Croxton

 

Re: PDP-11 RL02 disk emulation (project info links posted to list)

[jim stephens]

On 10/17/2016 2:54 AM, jim stephens wrote:



Has anyone built or had any experience with this (or any other) RL02
emulator?


This is the end status of the page.  in update 1.1B, he states that the 
board is not available, but shows the board:


http://www.pdp11gy.com/doneE.html

In update 1.1C there are some project files.  I have saved them to look 
at, but don't know if enough is there
to try to duplicate his work, or if it will result in a working drive 
emulation.


Project information

Technical information:
MFM decoder  http://www.pdp11gy.com/MFM-D.html
MFM encoder  http://www.pdp11gy.com/MFME-D.html

Project information:

The beginning  http://www.pdp11gy.com/hist2D.html
Architecture   http://www.pdp11gy.com/hist3D.html
Flow chart  http://www.pdp11gy.com/hist1D.html

perhaps someone can contact him.  I won't put his email address or name 
here for archival, but it is on

this page:

http://www.pdp11gy.com/0E.html

Looks like a nice project to help with, or pick up.
thanks
Jim

RE: PDP-11 RL02 disk emulation

[Paul Birkel]

-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of jim stephens
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2016 5:54 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: PDP-11 RL02 disk emulation

On 10/17/2016 1:03 AM, Scott Baker wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone built or had any experience with this (or any other) RL02 
> emulator?
>
> http://www.pdp11gy.com/indexE.html#file:///E:/homepage/indexE.html
>
> Thanks,
> Scott
I think that is the project that Al refers to in a posting Friday:

"There is also the German RL02 drive emulator, which seems to have stalled 
again"

http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2016-October/028417.html

It sounded like the fellow did a lot of good research, but I didn't see a 
completed state of the project.  And he had questions about the electronics 
that I didn't see clear answers posted to.

thanks
Jim

-

See this thread - Lou got one working using a DE0 Nano: 
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?40147-Improved-RL01-RL02-disc-simulator-available
Also: 
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?44728-Request-for-comment-Modifed-circuit-of-RL01-RL02-disc-emu-I-F-(mod-from-pdp11gy-com)

-

Re: PDP-11 RL02 disk emulation

[jim stephens]

On 10/17/2016 1:03 AM, Scott Baker wrote:

Hi,

Has anyone built or had any experience with this (or any other) RL02
emulator?

http://www.pdp11gy.com/indexE.html#file:///E:/homepage/indexE.html

Thanks,
Scott

I think that is the project that Al refers to in a posting Friday:

"There is also the German RL02 drive emulator, which seems to have 
stalled again"


http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2016-October/028417.html

It sounded like the fellow did a lot of good research, but I didn't see 
a completed
state of the project.  And he had questions about the electronics that I 
didn't see

clear answers posted to.

thanks
Jim

Re: DEC Legacy 2016

[Mark Wickens]

Thanks for the photos Dave.

Regards, Mark.


On 10/16/2016 9:51 PM, Dave Wade wrote:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211268710019994.1073741835.1426
800809=1=7dbd490379

PDP-11 RL02 disk emulation

[Scott Baker]

Hi,

Has anyone built or had any experience with this (or any other) RL02
emulator?

http://www.pdp11gy.com/indexE.html#file:///E:/homepage/indexE.html

Thanks,
Scott