Kenwood VC-1H SSTV communicator pricing request
Hi Gang, I have a Kenwood communicator, I can't imagine many of these were sold in the UK, I have the box, manual, warranty card, data cable. It runs of four double As. Quite a weirdly niche gadget, if not strictly computers. Does anyone have an idea of what a good condition one of these is to buy? I doubt I've made base rate inflation with it mind. I'll email photos for anyone interested in seeing either an SSTV image or the device itself. And yes, you'll need an amateur radio license to use it. Henry
Re: SDL and SunOS
On Sat, 21 Jul 2018, Alan Perry via cctalk wrote: On 7/20/18 4:30 PM, David Griffith via cctalk wrote: 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. What vintage SPARCstations and what version of SunOS? Are you talking about BSD SunOS or Solaris? The SPARCstations in question are the IPX (with PowerUP), 5, and 20. The version of SunOS is 4.1.4. -- 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: Strange third party board in PDP-11/45
I think it's Applied Computer Technologies, and I think they made cache and several other options. They were popular back in the day. I have a bunch of their boards here. Paul On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 1:37 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > This board was sitting in slot 21 of the backplane in a 11/45 > > https://i.imgur.com/ZYWZQCo.jpg > > What kind of board is this? > > It has 26 bipolar RAMS. Fairchild 93415 1kbit SRAM. > > The manufacturer might be ACT whatever that is. > > My guess is that it is some kind of cache board? It is connected to both > unibuses in the machine. > > Better ideas? Documentation? > > /Mattis >
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On 07/21/2018 02:43 PM, Carlo Pisani wrote: > thus, MO drive units are not reliable? At least not the later PMC ones. I remember that my drive wasn't even 6 months old when it died. PMC's policy was to replace it with a "refurbished" (read: used) replacement. That one barely lasted a month. PMC then stated that their backlog on replacements was something like 12 weeks. I wrote the cost of the drive off and moved on. PMC ceased operation shortly thereafter. Mind you, I was using the drive only for testing, so fortunately no important data was stored there. I note that the southern California operation that bought the bankruptcy sale stock is still in operation and offers a refurb Apex drive for about $250 with a 30-day warranty. No Thanks. --Chuck
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
thus, MO drive units are not reliable? 2018-07-21 23:34 GMT+02:00 Chuck Guzis via cctalk : > On 07/21/2018 02:12 PM, TeoZ via cctalk wrote: > >> I have old IBM MO Worm disks that are still readable, same with all my >> MO disks (3.5" 130MB, 5.25" 1.3GB) but drives can be iffy. I would bet >> that MO media will outlast us all while finding a drive to read them >> will be a problem. > > I've got a few old PMC Apex 4GB disks. I suspect that finding a working > drive will be most difficult. Heaven knows, mine died years ago. > > --Chuck >
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On 07/21/2018 02:12 PM, TeoZ via cctalk wrote: > I have old IBM MO Worm disks that are still readable, same with all my > MO disks (3.5" 130MB, 5.25" 1.3GB) but drives can be iffy. I would bet > that MO media will outlast us all while finding a drive to read them > will be a problem. I've got a few old PMC Apex 4GB disks. I suspect that finding a working drive will be most difficult. Heaven knows, mine died years ago. --Chuck
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
I had a home CDR back when they were over $1000+ new. The media turned out to be very reliable (and I have a bunch with gold, blue, green dye) and it still readable as long as you didn't scratch the optical reflective layer. I also used a laser printed paper cover which probably kept air out. I think the media had better quality control when a single CDR was $8 a pop then with a spool that costs $20. DVD recordable media was error prone if you used DL disks. I only used CDRW media for short term moving of files so I don't know how well they do long term. I have a BDXL Blueray drive I barely use since anything I need to get at is either online on my server of offline on a tape of some kind (LTO mostly but some DAT and AIT as well). I have old IBM MO Worm disks that are still readable, same with all my MO disks (3.5" 130MB, 5.25" 1.3GB) but drives can be iffy. I would bet that MO media will outlast us all while finding a drive to read them will be a problem. -Original Message- From: Carlo Pisani via cctalk Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2018 11:14 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM? hi yesterday I was shocked by a couple of videos on Youtube where guys pointed out their negative experiences with CD ROM and DVD RAM as media for their own backup. They complained their data completely lost after 5 years of storage in CD ROMs, pointing out that their CDs were perfectly conserved and kept clean without scratches, but all the data is gone lost since the media is unreadable. This is what they said in the video. I have a lot of backup here stored in CDs, and I have recently bought an SCSI DVDRAM unit to create new backups in caddies DVD-RAMs (of 4.2Gbyte each) what is your experience? --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
ps/2 Keyboard with 3 button trackball
hi I am looking for a ps/2 keyboard with a 3 buttons trackball I am currently using a Cherry's kb, but it has a built-in 2 buttons trackball and the software I need to use requires the third button to select items what do you suggest, guys?
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On Sat, 21 Jul 2018, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote: what about MO? (magneto-optic disks) - WORM (write once, read many) - WMRM (write many, read many) and what about magnetic-tapes? (e.g. DDS4, DLT, LTO2) which of them lasts for the most? MO units and disks are a bit costly say >=50 euro for 4.5Gbyte R/W cartridge and say >=500 euro for the driver unit (SCSI) "M-Disc" has the longest longevity claims. 'course they're all extrapolation. In a thousand years, it will be obvious that they are exaggerated.
Re: Strange third party board in PDP-11/45
any identification number sn front or back? can tell from just that shot. On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 2:37 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk wrote: > This board was sitting in slot 21 of the backplane in a 11/45 > > https://i.imgur.com/ZYWZQCo.jpg > > What kind of board is this? > > It has 26 bipolar RAMS. Fairchild 93415 1kbit SRAM. > > The manufacturer might be ACT whatever that is. > > My guess is that it is some kind of cache board? It is connected to both > unibuses in the machine. > > Better ideas? Documentation? > > /Mattis
Re: SDL and SunOS
On Jul 21, 2018, at 9:29 AM, Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez via cctalk wrote: > > David Griffith via cctalk wrote: >> 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 > Under SunOS 4.1.4, the last gcc version that is supported is 3.3.6, but I > haven't been able to build it on an IPX; it gets to the point where it > starts running gengtype and eats all memory available (I have 64MB RAM and > have added as much as 1024 swap and it still crashes). So, for the time > being I am still at the gcc 2.95.3 level in this particular sun4c machine. > In order to build 2.95.3, I had to bootstrap 2.8.1 using the cc that comes by > default in the SunOS 4.1.4 install CD. Under Solaris 2.6, the last supported > gcc version is 4.3.6, which I did manage to build in a sun4m Sparcstation 5 > machine with 144MB of RAM. I was able to build gcc 2.95.3 directly under SunOS 4.1.4 on a SPARCstation 20 with 512MB, it required one tweak to gcc/function.c in that I had to move a # to the first column. I tried to go up to gcc 3.3. but was similarly unsuccessful. Since I cared most about running code that I built, I considered building a cross-complier on modern Linux that targeted sun4m and using that to build against the headers and libraries copied off the SPARCstation. Unfortunately I had a really rough time building the tools and could never quite get them working. I suspect that was itself mainly due to the age of the tools I was trying to build; using modern tool binaries to build the last GPLv2 versions of the tools didn’t seem to work out so well. (I’m obligated not to go near the GPLv3 sources, so building anything newer—presuming there even were newer versions that could still target sun4m.) -- Chris
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
what about MO? (magneto-optic disks) - WORM (write once, read many) - WMRM (write many, read many) and what about magnetic-tapes? (e.g. DDS4, DLT, LTO2) which of them lasts for the most? MO units and disks are a bit costly say >=50 euro for 4.5Gbyte R/W cartridge and say >=500 euro for the driver unit (SCSI)
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On Sat, 21 Jul 2018, Jim Manley via cctalk wrote: The stability of the dyes is only part of the problem. Even mass-produced read-only optical media (e.g., movie/video content DVDs) can become unreadable over time Hence the necessity of ANYDVD, or equivalent.
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On Sat, 21 Jul 2018, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: The edge of the disk is SUPPOSED to be sealed. On cheap media, you see it oozing, and the aluminum oxidizing from the edge inward. This was pointed out to me already in the late 90's. Fortunately, unlike most spinning rust disks, the default is to start at the center and work out. Therefore, discs that are not full will last a little longer.
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
Longevity has always been an issue. (and we already know that 8" floppies outlast 3.5") Does anybody here have experience with "M-Disc"? It is available up to 100GB BDXL! Drives start at less than $100; media is prices vary - the 100GB starts at about $20 each, but the low capacity versions are bordering on competitive. The longevity claims are all extrapolations - turns out that nobody has ever ACTUALLY stored one for more than 30 years. If/when I can get a ride, I'd be glad to take one back to the sixties, to get a half-century test. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On 7/21/18 10:26 AM, Jim Manley via cctalk wrote: > Even mass-produced > read-only optical media (e.g., movie/video content DVDs) can become > unreadable over time because the reflective layer (typically aluminum) > under the data-encoded layer corrodes due to the chemistry of the dyes and > encasing plastic, and heat accelerates the process. The edge of the disk is SUPPOSED to be sealed. On cheap media, you see it oozing, and the aluminum oxidizing from the edge inward. This was pointed out to me already in the late 90's.
Strange third party board in PDP-11/45
This board was sitting in slot 21 of the backplane in a 11/45 https://i.imgur.com/ZYWZQCo.jpg What kind of board is this? It has 26 bipolar RAMS. Fairchild 93415 1kbit SRAM. The manufacturer might be ACT whatever that is. My guess is that it is some kind of cache board? It is connected to both unibuses in the machine. Better ideas? Documentation? /Mattis
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
The stability of the dyes is only part of the problem. Even mass-produced read-only optical media (e.g., movie/video content DVDs) can become unreadable over time because the reflective layer (typically aluminum) under the data-encoded layer corrodes due to the chemistry of the dyes and encasing plastic, and heat accelerates the process. The "gold" media may have enough of a protective layer of that noble metal (it's obviously not solid gold) that corrosion doesn't occur - only a few atoms' thickness is required. On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 10:58 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > On 07/21/2018 08:14 AM, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote: > > > what is your experience? > > Generally very good. But then, my valuable stuff on CD-R was done on > MAM-A (Mitsui) "gold" media. Some of it is 20+ years old. On the other > hand, no CD-RW disk that still have has survived. > > My experience with DVD-R has been somewhat variable. > > --Chuck >
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On 07/21/2018 08:14 AM, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote: > what is your experience? Generally very good. But then, my valuable stuff on CD-R was done on MAM-A (Mitsui) "gold" media. Some of it is 20+ years old. On the other hand, no CD-RW disk that still have has survived. My experience with DVD-R has been somewhat variable. --Chuck
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
orig first model hp scanjet worth saving! Ed# www.smecc.org In a message dated 7/20/2018 7:21:25 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk@classiccmp.org writes: > It would appear that there ARE people who want Vintage Generic PC Crap. > Except for the scanners.
Re: how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 05:14:00PM +0200, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote: [...] > They complained their data completely lost after 5 years of storage in CD > ROMs, pointing out that their CDs were perfectly conserved and kept clean > without scratches, but all the data is gone lost since the media is > unreadable. The lack of scratches is a red herring. CDs and DVDs are expected to get scratched in normal use, and contain multiple levels of error-correcting codes to protect against it. Cleaning can scratch them, so don't bother until the discs are so filthy that the drive can't read them any more. Scratches along the track corrupt more bits than radial scratches, which is why you should clean them hole-to-rim rather than in a circular motion. (Ordinary) recordable discs contain light-sensitive dyes which are affected by UV. Some dyes are better than others, and some dyes are even so crap that they'll self-erase in time without UV. So if you buy really shonky cheap media and/or store it somewhere that's not lightproof, it'll become unreadable in a matter of *months*. > I have a lot of backup here stored in CDs, and I have recently bought an SCSI > DVDRAM unit to create new backups in caddies DVD-RAMs (of 4.2Gbyte each) > what is your experience? If it's a backup, long-term durability isn't too much of a concern since under normal circumstances you will never perform a restore, and you should be backing-up often enough that there will be multiple copies anyway. If you are making an archive copy for long-term storage, buy two different brands of good-quality media, burn a copy to each, *verify them*, and then store them in multiple locations in a lightsafe container. Ideally, re-copy the discs every five years or so to make sure. Counterintuitively, DVD-R is more durable than the less-dense CD-R; I'm utterly unimpressed with my BD-R experience, finding that some disks were unreadable after mere days. For my backups, I just use whatever external USB drive is the cheapest at the time. I have too much data that chopping it into 4.7GB chunks and swapping discs is just impractical.
Re: SDL and SunOS
David Griffith via cctalk wrote: 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 Under SunOS 4.1.4, the last gcc version that is supported is 3.3.6, but I haven't been able to build it on an IPX; it gets to the point where it starts running gengtype and eats all memory available (I have 64MB RAM and have added as much as 1024 swap and it still crashes). So, for the time being I am still at the gcc 2.95.3 level in this particular sun4c machine. In order to build 2.95.3, I had to bootstrap 2.8.1 using the cc that comes by default in the SunOS 4.1.4 install CD. Under Solaris 2.6, the last supported gcc version is 4.3.6, which I did manage to build in a sun4m Sparcstation 5 machine with 144MB of RAM. It is pretty hard to build modern software with 2.95.3. It is mostly C89 compliant, but not C98. So... I think that you stand a chance to build SDL under Solaris, but not under SunOS 4.1.4. And, for Solaris 2.6, there are still some mirrors of the old Sunfreeware archive with many usable ports. The SunOS 4.1.4 situation is rather different, as there are hardly any pre-compiled binaries around. Carlos.
AIM 65 Cassette Test Program
Hi all...I got the following through my web site. Does anyone have a good known-working test program for an AIM 65 cassette that I can attempt and or send in response? I still have to set mine up and attempt to reproduce, but someone here likely has more experience, it has been at least 5 years since I powered mine on. Also, the article this guy references from MICRO April 1979 volume 11 is not present in my copy of MICRO, he may be mistaken in his reference. I don't know what cassette program he is referencing. I do know that the cassette test program that comes in the Rockwell AIM 65 manual is in error, but I don't have the corrections. I also know that one needs the correct (optional otherwise) power lines when using cassette. Bill VintageComputer.net Inquiry - I am one of the founders of the Computer Museum in Basel (CMBB/CMGB). We have 2 AIM 65 units that seem functional. However, we're experiencing problems with the cassette drive when trying to read back. We tried to record using cassette recorders and also a modern PC through line in and the audio signals are clearly recognizable (from pin M). A connection to pin L and using the corrected program to test readback from "micro_11_apr_1979_text_syn_read_program_AIM65.pdf" only displays the "N" on either AIM 65 system. The cassette interface potentiometers are sealed in one of the units by the manufacturer and have never been changed as far as we can tell. Is there anything we could try to get reading from tape to work? We are running our of ideas. Is there any way to visualize the incoming signal through a small program other than the one from the magazine?
Re: zilog system 8000
On 7/20/18 2:43 PM, Mattis Lind wrote: > 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. > I hadn't looked at Al's page in a while, I see there was a long discussion of removing the gunk stuck to the surface from the belt, with no real solution. I need to do some more experiments with solvents on scratch tapes.
how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?
hi yesterday I was shocked by a couple of videos on Youtube where guys pointed out their negative experiences with CD ROM and DVD RAM as media for their own backup. They complained their data completely lost after 5 years of storage in CD ROMs, pointing out that their CDs were perfectly conserved and kept clean without scratches, but all the data is gone lost since the media is unreadable. This is what they said in the video. I have a lot of backup here stored in CDs, and I have recently bought an SCSI DVDRAM unit to create new backups in caddies DVD-RAMs (of 4.2Gbyte each) what is your experience?
Re: Tektronix 4113
Before it goes away, could you take pictures of the circuit boards and dump the firmware? These are pretty rare, documentation even rarer. Richard at the computer graphics museum http://computergraphicsmuseum.org/ may be interested. https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/Tektronix_4113 On 7/21/18 4:48 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote: > Any interest in a Tek 4113 terminal (minus display)? I have one collecting > dust here and would like to trade for older Tek restoration help / other > pdp11 stuff. The keyboard is damaged but otherwise it's just old and > dirty, haven't opened it up. Located in western Pennsylvania. > > thx > jake >
Tektronix 4113
Any interest in a Tek 4113 terminal (minus display)? I have one collecting dust here and would like to trade for older Tek restoration help / other pdp11 stuff. The keyboard is damaged but otherwise it's just old and dirty, haven't opened it up. Located in western Pennsylvania. thx jake
Re: Courier Modems (Was: Landfill?
It would appear that there ARE people who want Vintage Generic PC Crap. Except for the scanners. The scanners shouldn't have to be regarded as (Vintage) Generic PC Crap. For example, I wrote a hack for the (possibly un-aptly named) SANE scanner software to let it drive a SCSI scanner from VAX/VMS... (I wouldn't mind having another SCSI scanner to play with if it wasn't on the wrong side of the Atlantic.) Regards, Peter Coghlan.
Re: SDL and SunOS
What vintage SPARCstations and what version of SunOS? Are you talking about BSD SunOS or Solaris? On 7/20/18 4:30 PM, David Griffith via cctalk wrote: 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.
Re: MOS MCS2529 math chip
Here's a link to the instruction manual. http://www.wass.net/manuals/Melcor%20SC-635.pdf Note that it says to have the battery in place if you want to run it off the external ac adaptor. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 20, 2018, at 14:06, Brent Hilpert via cctalk mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote: 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: zilog system 8000
> > 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. That didn't work when AJ read my S8000 tapes at least. Some of the tracks had to be read a few stepper motor steps off the nominal track to give a good read. And I did the decoding in software. No custom conroller hardware. /Mattis > > -tony >
