Re: zilog system 8000
On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 3:26 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: > > > On 7/20/18 2:43 PM, Mattis Lind wrote: > >> And as Al wrote: No it is not at all QIC. The drive has four fixed tracks >> and the encoding is MFM. > > These 4-track fixed-head drives were common drives prior to the invention of > movable head devices. TI used them in 990 I seem to remember the original QIC11 standard was (or at least included) a 4 track version. And the later 9 track format kept those 4 tracks in the same place and put 5 more, one on each side and 3 between them if you see what I mean. So unless you need to read 2 tracks simultaneously (e.g. becuase it uses the encoded where a pulse on one track is a '0', a pulse on the other is a '1' and pulses on both together are a marker) you can probably get the data off the tape with a raw 4 track or 9 track drive and a custom controller. -tony
Re: MOS MCS2529 math chip
On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 7:40 PM, Brent Hilpert via cctalk wrote: > If you want to power it through the charger jack, then you need to assess > whether there is any internal charging circuitry (rectification, > aforementioned > current-limiting R, etc.) sitting between the jack and the cells. It is not uncommon for the NiCd cells to act as a shunt regulator in such calculators. The charger is of relatively high voltage (say around 9V), it is applied to the cells through a current limiter (often just a simple resistor as you say), and the fact that the on-charge voltage of the cells is perhaps 2.5V (for a pair of NiCds) limits the voltage applied to the rest of the calculator. What this means is that if you connect the charger with no cells in place then either 1) Nothing will work as the charger circuit can't supply enough current to power the calculator 2) Nothing will work ever again as the voltage across the battery terminals with no cells to clamp the voltage is sufficiently high to damage the IC. The latter is a particular problem in some calculators with continuous memory (meaning the memory is powered from the battery even when the machine is turned off). Connecting the charger to one of those with no battery in place will damage ICs even if the machine is not turned on. -tony >
Re: zilog system 8000
On 7/20/18 2:43 PM, Mattis Lind wrote: > And as Al wrote: No it is not at all QIC. The drive has four fixed tracks > and the encoding is MFM. These 4-track fixed-head drives were common drives prior to the invention of movable head devices. TI used them in 990 systems as well as early 80 companies like Onyx and in particular DSD, which used the Kennedy 6455 of which I have several out of the DSDs with good capstans that I had hoped to try recovering the TI and other carts on. I have two Zeus carts: f77 src & lib src tape zeus 3.21 games executable & virg game src zeus 5.1
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
> On Jul 20, 2018, at 7:57 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk > wrote: > > There's now six requests for 4 or 5 modems. ... That is a little scary. I will hunt for modems in my boxes, and post if I can find them. They will be available, but I’m sure I didn’t get any Couriers. > It would appear that there ARE people who want Vintage Generic PC Crap. > Except for the scanners. > . . . and probably deskjet and dot matrix printers. Actually, I have a reasonable collection of Stylewriters that I’d swap for an Imagewriter. I wouldn't consider that a good bargain for the previous Imagewriter owner, but in case anyone is looking to “trade up”…. All this (that I can find) in San Antonio, Texas. - Mark
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
On 07/20/2018 05:57 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > Is anybody familiar with the firmware upgrade aspects of the different > models? I gave away three of the things last year--a "dual standard"; a "Courier V.92 (or something" and the latest "V. everything" one. There were firmware upgrades for the first two, but IIRC, they also involved an SRAM upgrade. There was an upgrade for the V.Everything, that was download and flash (i.e. no replacement ICs). --Chuck
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
There's now six requests for 4 or 5 modems. And I don't yet know which specific sub-models they are I may be able to get a look at them on Tuesday or Thursday. It is likely that they all work, but I will not guarantee them, nor even get around to testing them. I have some wall warts, but not sure how many. Is anybody familiar with the firmware upgrade aspects of the different models? It would appear that there ARE people who want Vintage Generic PC Crap. Except for the scanners. . . . and probably deskjet and dot matrix printers. But, I will respect Evan's wishes, and be selective about what I haul to VCF; I don't want to bring anything back. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018, Ed Sharpe via cctalk wrote: yes would take one or 2 Ed# In a message dated 7/19/2018 4:44:02 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk@classiccmp.org writes: Is there ANY interest in Courier 56K V.92 modems? There's four or five. Next week, I'll check which sub-models. On Thu, 19 Jul 2018, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: On 07/19/2018 03:51 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: Is there ANY interest in Courier 56K V.92 modems? I'm finding that my interest in BBSing and other modem based communications of the '80s & '90s is flaring again. As such, a pair of Courier's is on my list to acquire when it's convenient. I'd also be interested in a pair of Couriers, preferably of the V-Everything variety. -- David Griffith d...@661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
SDL and SunOS
How feasable is it to compile and run SDL for SunOS? My main reason for doing this is to play Z-machine games on Sparcstations using Frotz (https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz) using the SDL interface to play V6 games. -- David Griffith d...@661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
Re: zilog system 8000
I have one model 21 and one model 11. Finch drive and ST506 drive respectively. Not sure about the status of disks, but I have a spare Finch drive. I also have three install tapes. One Sadie 3.5 and two ZEUS 3.21. When time permits I will read those. AJ Palmgren read a tape with a tar archive I made myself on this machine many years ago. The ouput I got from AJ was Saleae logic analyzer dumps. One per track read. He is using a quite standard Wangtek 5099 drive where he is able to control the head in more detail. Some dumps were from tracks which were spot on one of the tracks on the tape. Others were not a full hit. I had to test all of them. I created a small program that decoded the MFM data off the tracks. It processed gigabytes worth of samples. Checked the CRC and wrote it to file so I could recover the archieve. http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/others/zilog-s8000/extract-s8000-tapes Credits goes to AJ Palmgren for reading the tape and to David Gesswein from whom I stole and modified the MFM decoder. And as Al wrote: No it is not at all QIC. The drive has four fixed tracks and the encoding is MFM. /Mattis fredag 20 juli 2018 skrev Al Kossow via cctalk : > > > On 7/20/18 6:20 AM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > > >> We also have some tapes, again, I don't know which ones. > > Be VERY careful with those if you find them. They are NOT > QIC-compatible and the belts WILL be bad. > >
68k development, Avocet Development
hi does anyone happen to use Avocet Development Tools for m68k? how good/bad is it?
Re: MOS MCS2529 math chip
On 2018-Jul-20, at 10:18 AM, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > Anyone got pinout/spec information for a MOS MCS2529? In particular, I'm > curious about operating voltage. I acquired a Melcor SC-635 calculator > yesterday and there seems to be some uncertainty about the output voltage of > its (rechargeable) battery pack; some places say 2.4V, i.e. the pack is a > pair of 1.2V cells, but others say 9V. > > 2.4V seems a little low to me for typical logic, but on the other hand I've > seen a period ad which says that the external PSU was 9V - and so the > rechargeable battery must have been somewhat less than that. Rechargeable and 1.2V/cell would correlate to 2 NiCd cells, a not-unusual configuration for calculators of that period. Such units would typically use a simple built-in switching power supply to boost the battery voltage up to levels adequate for the logic and/or display. In the pic of the PCB board here: http://www.teclas.org/maquina.php?mm=C125 the chunky box component 'below' the IC is probably a switching PS module. It was also common to use simple resistive current limiting in the charge circuit for NiCds. In consequence, the voltage supplied by the external AC charger may be quite a bit higher than the battery voltage. It's possible that's where the 9V external spec comes from, if not just a mistake. Sometimes the current limiting R is in the external charger, sometimes it's in the calculator. Further, such designs also tended to rely on the battery to provide AC filtering & voltage regulation (limiting) of the charger V down to the battery V. If the battery/cells have been removed or are in really bad condition, operating the calc from the original external charger can result in too high a voltage being applied to the electronics. My usual procedure for such calcs is to cut out the NiCd cells (there is ~0 probability they are any good), noting the polarity. For testing, clip on a bench supply to substitute for the batteries, set of course to the appropriate V for the battery ( # of cells * V/cell ). If the batteries have already been removed and there are no polarity markings, let me know if you'd like some assistance trying to figure it out. If you want to power it through the charger jack, then you need to assess whether there is any internal charging circuitry (rectification, aforementioned current-limiting R, etc.) sitting between the jack and the cells.
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
yes would take one or 2 Ed# In a message dated 7/19/2018 4:44:02 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk@classiccmp.org writes: >> Is there ANY interest in Courier 56K V.92 modems? There's four or five. Next week, I'll check which sub-models. On Thu, 19 Jul 2018, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > On 07/19/2018 03:51 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: >> Is there ANY interest in Courier 56K V.92 modems? > > I'm finding that my interest in BBSing and other modem based communications > of the '80s & '90s is flaring again. > > As such, a pair of Courier's is on my list to acquire when it's convenient. > > > > -- > Grant. . . . > unix || die
MOS MCS2529 math chip
Anyone got pinout/spec information for a MOS MCS2529? In particular, I'm curious about operating voltage. I acquired a Melcor SC-635 calculator yesterday and there seems to be some uncertainty about the output voltage of its (rechargeable) battery pack; some places say 2.4V, i.e. the pack is a pair of 1.2V cells, but others say 9V. 2.4V seems a little low to me for typical logic, but on the other hand I've seen a period ad which says that the external PSU was 9V - and so the rechargeable battery must have been somewhat less than that. cheers Jules
Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...
On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 5:06 PM, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote: >> -Original Message- >> From: cctalk On Behalf Of dwight via > cctalk >> Sent: 19 July 2018 22:17 >> To: Liam Proven ; General Discussion: On-Topic and >> Off-Topic Posts >> Subject: Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100... >> >> One thing that bothers me is the continued emphasis on arithmetic and not >> on mathematics. The kids growing up today will rarely be more than a few >> feet from a calculator. The first thing on the math test was the "No > calculator >> allowed". I'm not saying that they shouldn't be taught arithmetic but it > should >> be the minimum necessary to recreate a multiplication, square, divide or >> what ever table. Knowing what 43 * 67 is on an exam is useless in >> determining if the kid can learn calculus or understand how it relates to > the >> real world. > > All too often they put the numbers in blindly, mis-type, and get a silly > answer.. Or quote far too many significant figures. I had an idiot who was asking for a resistor accurate to 8 significant figures or something. Turned out it was the series resistor for an LED As I said, an idiot... > They need enough to know that the answer to that calculation will be > somewhere > between 2400 and 3500 and probably be able to tell me its likely to be near > 40 X 70... > > ... so take 43 + 5 * 67 > ... well the windows calculator gives 3216 in standard mode and 378 in > scientific mode Or I'm debugging something. I measure the voltage across a resistor as 13.7V. A check with the schematic or the colour bands on the resistor shows it's a 1.5k Ohm one. So I think 'That means there's a little under 10mA flowing, is that reasonable?'. To have to stop, type the numbers into a calculator and get 9.1..mA would take longer and not tell me anything more in most cases. -tony
RE: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100...
> -Original Message- > From: cctalk On Behalf Of dwight via cctalk > Sent: 19 July 2018 22:17 > To: Liam Proven ; General Discussion: On-Topic and > Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: GoTEK SFR1M44-U100... > > One thing that bothers me is the continued emphasis on arithmetic and not > on mathematics. The kids growing up today will rarely be more than a few > feet from a calculator. The first thing on the math test was the "No calculator > allowed". I'm not saying that they shouldn't be taught arithmetic but it should > be the minimum necessary to recreate a multiplication, square, divide or > what ever table. Knowing what 43 * 67 is on an exam is useless in > determining if the kid can learn calculus or understand how it relates to the > real world. All too often they put the numbers in blindly, mis-type, and get a silly answer.. They need enough to know that the answer to that calculation will be somewhere between 2400 and 3500 and probably be able to tell me its likely to be near 40 X 70... ... so take 43 + 5 * 67 ... well the windows calculator gives 3216 in standard mode and 378 in scientific mode > > About the hardest math a person might need to know how do do by > themselves it to figure the tip at a restaurant. And even then, if the cell > phone is charged it will do it for them. > > Dwight Dave >
Re: zilog system 8000
On 7/20/18 6:20 AM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: >> We also have some tapes, again, I don't know which ones. Be VERY careful with those if you find them. They are NOT QIC-compatible and the belts WILL be bad.
RE: Landfill?
> My first 5150 started life with the white switch black power supply. > A decade ago, the college dumpstered the collection of one of my > colleagues; besides IMSAI, ProcTech, N*, he had had a few dozen clean > 5150s and 5170s, including several of the "gold-badge" 5170s. Fred, I've never heard of a 5170 w/ a gold badge or a 5150 w/ a white switch. I have a very early 5150 (model A if you prefer) which according to SN is one of the first 2500 produced and that one has a red switch. Do you by any chance have the SN on yours handy? p.s. what did the gold badge signify? -Ali
Re: Landfill?
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 at 00:30, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > > I'm not healthy enough (last year I had another TURP surgery *Googles* *Winces _hard_* I'm in for surgery next week myself. They're going to try to stop my left arm from falling off. Snag is... I'm left handed. And I'm in Prague and I don't speak Czech worth a damn. Summary: :-( :'( Anyway. Want me to mention your list of stuff on the FB Vintage Computer Club? Either anonymoulsy or via a spamtrap of your choice... -- 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: zilog system 8000
IIRC that was one of the first donations to our club back in 2005 On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 1:04 AM Evan Koblentz via cctech < cct...@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > >> A very big and expensive door stopper without OS tapes. > >> But most importantly: the CPU board is missing! > >> The card in slot 2 appears to be an additional SIO card. > >> > >> This is a model 20, quite low-end. We have a model 32 (much rarer, I > >> haven't found anyone else with a model 32), but it is non-functional > >> because I have no tapes. The SMD disk has too many errors to recover a > >> functional system. > >> > > > > There's a Model 31 at LCM+L (used to be mine). If anyone ever does > recover > > media for these things, it'd be nice to get it running... > > > > - Josh > > VCF has one but I'm not sure which model it is. I can check next week. > We also have some tapes, again, I don't know which ones. >
VCFMW drop offs, pick ups, visits
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone going to VCFMW. I'm going to try to go up Friday and leave late Saturday. It's always great when people swing by the house, but try to give me some warning, especially with me going up Friday. I hope to have a path dug into my last 25 foot storage unit and retrieve a ton of micro-Vax II parts along with a ton of other items. I still have a few 3000 alphas, about 10 3100s, a few 4000s, 5000s, 6 or so BA11-N (11/03L/23) boxes, BA23s, LA120s, and 1000's of other parts. Also some REMEX interfaces and a bunch of paper tape readers and maybe punches I'm getting tired of looking at. Please contact me off list if you have any requests or questions. Feel free to send me wish lists. Thanks, Paul
