Re: Searching for a lost Macintosh TV (Texas)

On Mon, 5 Dec 2016, Ian Finder wrote: Props for for having a good sense of humor. It made me laugh. Seriously though I hate to say it but your quest feels pretty damn futile. I wish you luck either way, and would offer you my MacTV but it is long gone. If you can provide names of unique

Re: Searching for a lost Macintosh TV (Texas)

On Mon, 5 Dec 2016, Ian Finder wrote: They sold 10,000 Apple TVs. That's a lot. You lost track of one ten years ago, and have given no real methodology for discerning it from any other- the number out there with OS 7.6 or 8mb of ram will be significant. Perhaps you should go door-to-door,

Re: Black anti-static foam corrosion

likely come up with the model/serial numbers too. (We know who took the HAM radio gear, but couldn't really do much about it.) http://strudel.ignorelist .com/~tothwolf/classiccmp/stolen_nikon_camera_gear.txt

Searching for a lost Macintosh TV (Texas)

I'm not really active in any of the classic computing communities apart from classiccmp, so I would appreciate it if others could pass this message around and see if this computer ended up in the hands of a fellow collector. A good friend of mine who lived in Spring, TX (north of Houston)

Re: Possibly rarest Apple 1 ever for auction

On Sat, 23 Jul 2016, Corey Cohen wrote: My guess is that is was a test board for Apple. There are some weird mods to the ram timing with a variable cap and to the negative supply that looks like they were experiments to figure out the tolerances of the chips. The board was wave soldered.

Re: heap of floppy disks

On Fri, 22 Jul 2016, devin davison wrote: I picked up two crates jam packed full of floppys today. Bunch of random old utilities in there, borland turbo asm, turbo pascal, windows for workgroups etc. I found a set of disks with the DEC digital logo on them. 4-5 disks, says dos for the dec

Re: Possibly rarest Apple 1 ever for auction

On Fri, 22 Jul 2016, Corey Cohen wrote: There were no blank boards. That's the key. The sockets were wave soldered by the PCB manufacturer according to Woz. There were 2 runs of 100 boards each. This is also an early layout board (Non NTI) but with different wave soldered sockets than the

Re: Looking for old connectors

On Sun, 10 Jul 2016, Oliver Lehmann wrote: One is easy - J3 is a 2x10 pin 2.54mm connector which is still common today. But it is higher than the usual connectors. It has a hight of 1.5cm. If you search for the printed A-MP number (1-87456-6), you'll find the housing, but not the soldered

Re: Looking for old connectors

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Jon Elson wrote: On 07/09/2016 09:18 AM, Tothwolf wrote: On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Mike Stein wrote: From: "Tothwolf" <tothw...@concentric.net> On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Oliver Lehmann wrote: Hi, for rebuilding a circuit, I'm in need of 3 old connectors used on th

Re: Looking for old connectors

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Mike Stein wrote: From: "Tothwolf" <tothw...@concentric.net> On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Oliver Lehmann wrote: Hi, for rebuilding a circuit, I'm in need of 3 old connectors used on the original board. ## The next one is also a power p

Re: Looking for old connectors

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Oliver Lehmann wrote: Hi, for rebuilding a circuit, I'm in need of 3 old connectors used on the original board. ## The next one is also a power plug - but I have no idea about its AMP number or something:

Re: Repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard

On Wed, 6 Jul 2016, Tothwolf wrote: On Tue, 5 Jul 2016, Tothwolf wrote: The electrolytic capacitors on this particular board at locations CE1 and CE6 have Sanyo OS-CON 220uF 10V polymer parts (purple sleeve and appear to be 10SA220M) fitted and the solder work was done by hand. The joints

Re: Repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016, Tothwolf wrote: The electrolytic capacitors on this particular board at locations CE1 and CE6 have Sanyo OS-CON 220uF 10V polymer parts (purple sleeve and appear to be 10SA220M) fitted and the solder work was done by hand. The joints were completely defluxed/cleaned

Repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard

I'm currently in the process of repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard which suffered shipping damage and I'm trying to find anyone else who might have one. I can't find any photos of one of these boards online (except for the one I recently purchased) and the board I have shows possible

Re: Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl; _3.jpg

On Sun, 3 Jul 2016, Liam Proven wrote: On 3 July 2016 at 05:00, Tothwolf <tothw...@concentric.net> wrote: I think the same could probably be said for something like that 6-processor Pentium Pro that was sold in the late 90s which had a black cube style case and a stand which allowed it

RE: Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl; _3.jpg

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Jay West wrote: Ed wrote... - Not just any Packard Bell... just this one. http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg it has a place due to form and design, certainly not performance. - IMOO no place at all. If it had some kind of cult following, or lots

Re: Tandy TRS0-Model 2000 Computer Monitor required

On Wed, 29 Jun 2016, Brendan McNeill wrote: Looking for a Tandy TRS-80 Model 2000 compute monitor. Wikipedia description here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_2000 The monochrome is model VM-1 Monitor, the colour is CM-1 Monitor. Does your

Re: USPS: Shipping

On Mon, 1 Feb 2016, Norman Jaffe wrote: I've had even more fun with UPS - there was a big hole punched in the side of a tape library that was shipped to me, completely destroying the library. The hole matched the fork on a forklift truck. UPS insisted that the hole existed before they shipped

Re: USPS: Shipping

On Mon, 1 Feb 2016, Guy Sotomayor wrote: On Feb 1, 2016, at 10:30 AM, Ken Seefried <seefr...@gmail.com> wrote: On Sun, 31 Jan 2016, Tothwolf wrote: On Sun, 31 Jan 2016, Pete Lancashire wrote: Spend the extra few dollars (or what your currency is) and pack it in very strong box. I've ac

Re: PDP-11/03, LSI-11 KEV11-C CIS option

On Sun, 31 Jan 2016, Pete Lancashire wrote: On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 1:24 AM, Henk Gooijen wrote: OK, if nobody in the USA steps up, I will check where I have stored that little box. At least, I am pretty sure I have that chip. I can do that this week. Insured

Re: IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal - need fuse holder

On Fri, 29 Jan 2016, Ethan Dicks wrote: On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 2:39 AM, Tothwolf <tothw...@concentric.net> wrote: On Thu, 28 Jan 2016, Ethan Dicks wrote: I was just gifted with an IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal that happens to be missing the fuse and fuse holder. Unlike a lot of 1960s and

Re: IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal - need fuse holder

On Thu, 28 Jan 2016, Ethan Dicks wrote: I was just gifted with an IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal that happens to be missing the fuse and fuse holder. Unlike a lot of 1960s and 1970s gear, it's not round. It's square. Is this a standard IBM thing from the 70s/80s? Anyone know where I could get

Re: Can Windows 98SE run on an Intel I7 with SATA hard drives?

On Thu, 28 Jan 2016, Chuck Guzis wrote: The latest rig that I've run 98SE on is a Intel P3 (440GX) with 2GB of memory. I can do it, but it took the "unofficial final service pack" to reduce the amount of memory to something reasonable. Drivers, I think would be the stumbling block on modern

Re: VT100 PSU smelling.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Mattis Lind wrote: I don't have a ESR meter or similar. It is not shorted at least and the resistance is in the several mega ohm range when measuring in circuit. Are they likely to go bad in a non catastrophic way? They can. The translucent yellow Rifa (now owned by

Re: RIFA EMI caps [WAS: Re: VT100 PSU smelling.]

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 01/23/2016 02:40 PM, Pontus wrote: All I could find were new similar Kemet capacitors. Do you know if newer Kemet suffer from the same problem and I will regret buying them? I usually replace the Rifa capacitors with equivalent polyester safety

RE: VT100 PSU smelling.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, tony duell wrote: Incidentally, some machines have those sealed metal cans containing filter capacitors, inductors and sometimes discharge resistors [2]. Has anyone ever had the capacitors in one of those fail? Actually, yes. I had one fail in one of my scopes. I don't

Re: VT100 PSU smelling.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Jules Richardson wrote: On 01/22/2016 06:26 PM, Tothwolf wrote: The translucent yellow Rifa (now owned by Kemet) class X/Y safety capacitors in particular have a 100% failure rate and are on my replace-on-sight list. They usually begin to show visible signs of cracking

Re: VT100 PSU smelling.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Mattis Lind wrote: 2016-01-23 0:32 GMT+01:00 Peter Coghlan : R27 is part of the snubber network on the primary side of this forward-type SMPS PSU. But why it it getting so hot. Is it normal? I have completely forgotten how a VT100 smell when

Re: Looking for 3COM 3C905-TX Drivers

On Sat, 26 Dec 2015, Adrian Graham wrote: On 26/12/2015 00:45, "Robert Jarratt" wrote: Not too long ago I picked up a DEC Venturis FX 5120. It contains a 3COM 3C905-TX network card. There are some sites around the web that purport to have drivers for this card,

Re: Looking for 3COM 3C905-TX Drivers

On Sat, 26 Dec 2015, Robert Jarratt wrote: Not too long ago I picked up a DEC Venturis FX 5120. It contains a 3COM 3C905-TX network card. There are some sites around the web that purport to have drivers for this card, but I am very wary of downloading anything from these sites. Does anyone

RE: EAI TR-10 Patch Plugs

On Mon, 21 Dec 2015, Dave G4UGM wrote: On Sun, 20 Dec 2015, Charles Anthony wrote: Or, rather then cutting it, remove the inside threads on the shell, and glue it back on to the plug, rather than screwing it on. That’s about the best method, but there is not much room for extra lead to push

Re: Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015, Mike Ross wrote: On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 4:59 AM, tony duell wrote: This board does not look that complicated and all the ICs have known numbers on them (mostly TTL logic). If it were mine I'd trace out the schematic. That's true and possible.

Re: tool for installing pin in PCB extractors?

On Sat, 24 Oct 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 10/24/2015 09:49 PM, Eric Smith wrote: What tool does one use to install the metal pin into a plastic PCB extractor, e.g., the Bivar CP-36 or Keystone 8642? There are expensive tools for the purpose, but I've always just used a pair of long-nose

Re: Speaking of reproductions..

On Sat, 24 Oct 2015, Brad wrote: I was checking out the Altair 8800 kit online (really cool). But I am hoping to one day find a kit or plans to build a Mark-8 replica, since I'm so deep into Radio Electronics features. I know there was a kit out there (Obtronix?). Was it any good? Do I

RE: Opening a DECserver 90M External PSU

On Sun, 18 Oct 2015, Robert Jarratt wrote: I had another go today, but I fail to see how you managed to pry this thing apart without causing much more damage than appears in your photo. What kind of tool did you use? My usual technique to deal with these sort of brick and wall-wart PSUs

Re: Q-bus I/O project

On Fri, 9 Oct 2015, John Wilson wrote: On Fri, Oct 09, 2015 at 09:48:18PM -0500, Jay Jaeger wrote: Do U17,U15,U10,U6 perhaps have some solder bridges, or is that just some flux hanging around? It's flux, but thanks for the heads-up! I went over everything with liquid-flux-soaked

Re: Compaq Portable II - IDE compatibility (and setup disk image)

On Mon, 5 Oct 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: My Portable II uses a Miniscribe ST506/412 drive hooked up to a bridge board that I'm told is IDE at the other side, back to the controller. The original drive in my machine is toast - I had to pop the lid to free the spindle. It spins up now, and

Re: Compaq Portable II - IDE compatibility (and setup disk image)

On Tue, 6 Oct 2015, Tothwolf wrote: On Mon, 5 Oct 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: My Portable II uses a Miniscribe ST506/412 drive hooked up to a bridge board that I'm told is IDE at the other side, back to the controller. The original drive in my machine is toast - I had to pop the lid

RE: Troubleshooting a 286.. oscope level!

On Sat, 3 Oct 2015, et...@757.org wrote: I might be able to get hold of the bios, but I'm worried about the 3rd EPROM. It sits in the middle of a bunch of Yamaha branded chips. The BIOS chips are in the middle of a Chips & Technologies 286 chipset group. The people I find might be able to

RE: ESR Meter Recommendations

On Wed, 30 Sep 2015, Jay West wrote: Question - I could be mistaken, but I think someone mentioned that these were not good for testing caps that had a higher operating voltage. Is that correct? My understanding was that the testing method used by this ESR meter was valid for most all the

Re: ESR Meter Recommendations

On Wed, 30 Sep 2015, John Robertson wrote: On 09/29/2015 2:59 PM, Jay West wrote: This is the one I have used for years. http://clientes.netvisao.pt/greenpal/evb1.htm About $88 USD That is an authorized Bob Parker variation of his original Dick Smith ESR meter kit. On this side of the

Re: ESR Meter Recommendations

On Wed, 30 Sep 2015, John Robertson wrote: On 09/30/2015 5:22 PM, Tothwolf wrote: I bought a kit from anatekcorp.com last year to replace my Dick Smith version that spouted legs and was rather disappointed with how it had been kitted up. A lot of the components were very low quality or did

Re: One more try - Can you ID this S-100 Serial board?

On Wed, 30 Sep 2015, jwsmobile wrote: I couldn't spot how they did level shifting to RS232 levels. The SI signal appears to go to a 7400 next to one of the Uarts. One of the Uarts is one which requires it would seem 12 v as well, but it doesn't do the levels for rs232 (AY-3-1015) I'd need

Re: Small glass capacitors polarized?

On Sun, 27 Sep 2015, Noel Chiappa wrote: > From: drlegendre > I'm not sure what you're describing. Can you link to a pic of one of > these caps? http://www.electrical4u.com/images/glass-capacitor.jpg These are hermetically sealed ceramic and are non-polarized. The glass encapsulation

Re: IBM 026

On Sat, 19 Sep 2015, Able Baker wrote: On Fri, 18 Sep 2015, Todd Goodman wrote: On Fri, 18 Sep 2015, Noel Chiappa wrote: Well, here's an 029 (not quite what the OP was looking for, but good enough for you all, I expect) for a not insane amount of money: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281796720725

Re: Keys resurfaces

While I've not yet completely forgiven Mr. Keys for swiping a van load of VAX systems (including a bunch of MicroVAX 3100, 4000/VLC, etc) over a decade ago when I had offered him some wide format printers and large monitors, I'm willing to talk to him and see what can be done if others are

Re: Keys resurfaces

On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, William Donzelli wrote: It seems to happen all the time with collectables (I must admit I have a loft room full, and I don't have anywhere to exhibit) but to me this needs PEOPLE and then a PLAN and lastly a Kick Starter project to get it exhibitable, if indeed any of it

Re: Keys resurfaces

On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, jwsmobile wrote: On 9/4/2015 12:54 PM, Tothwolf wrote: On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, William Donzelli wrote: It seems to happen all the time with collectables (I must admit I have a loft room full, and I don't have anywhere to exhibit) but to me this needs PEOPLE and then a PLAN

Re: Possible road trip....Illnois, Canada, Maine and back

On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, William Donzelli wrote: Yes. ALL the ducks. Several of us have been bounced at the border for trying to bring in larger machines. Basically, if it is something that is not a laptop or PeeCee or normal consumer electronics, expect trouble. It is not 1998 anymore. Do

Re: Electronic devices and borders - Re: Possible road trip....Illnois, Canada, Maine and back

On Fri, 4 Sep 2015, Toby Thain wrote: On 2015-09-04 5:20 PM, Jason T wrote: read my email on my phone I hope everyone saw that and understands what it means. Borders have changed. Any data you take across them is fair game. Indeed they have. ...and things continue to change:

RE: IBM 1620

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, Dave G4UGM wrote: On Sat, 29 Aug 2015, Tothwolf wrote: IBM had special machines to position and thread them. http://ibm-1401.info/IBMCoreArraysIEEEMagnetics1969.pdf Thanks for posting that. Very interesting. Looking at it, the machines are extremely complex, but I am

Re: IBM 1620

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, Paul Koning wrote: On Aug 30, 2015, at 1:55 PM, Chuck Guzis ccl...@sydex.com wrote: On 08/30/2015 09:47 AM, Tothwolf wrote: If repair of the core memory in CHM's IBM 1620 is ever attempted, I think either low-tin solder alloy with 1-2% added copper or possibly a more

Re: De-yellowing results

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 08/30/2015 11:08 AM, Jules Richardson wrote: On 08/28/2015 12:08 PM, Evan Koblentz wrote: We're thinking about building that kind of deyellowing station in the MARCH warehouse. Hmm, single UV lamp, couple of stepper motors and a couple of circular

Re: Sales of unearthed Atari games total more than $100,000

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, drlegendre . wrote: On Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 1:41 PM, Ali cct...@fahimi.net wrote: How might a collector discern a landfill E.T. cart from any other E.T. cat that some snarky guy buried in the clay of his back forty? Not that I am expert or anything but my understanding

Re: IBM 1620

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 08/30/2015 09:47 AM, Tothwolf wrote: If repair of the core memory in CHM's IBM 1620 is ever attempted, I think either low-tin solder alloy with 1-2% added copper or possibly a more modern indium-lead solder alloy would probably be the best choice

Re: IBM 1620

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, ben wrote: On 8/30/2015 6:32 PM, Tothwolf wrote: On page 5, they describe 0.0031 40 AWG magnet wire being reduced to 0.002 after soldering with 60/40 tin-lead solder. That 0.0011 reduction is basically 1/3 of the diameter of the wire. This explains the failures

Re: De-yellowing results

On Sun, 30 Aug 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 08/30/2015 05:55 PM, Tothwolf wrote: Wrong type of UV. You are mostly getting long wave UVA outdoors, so blacklight lamps would seem to be the correct (and MUCH safer) choice. When I looked at 24 T8 bi-pin blacklight lamps, they were going for about

Re: IBM 1620

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015, Paul Koning wrote: On Aug 29, 2015, at 12:36 AM, Lyle Bickley lbick...@bickleywest.com wrote: I was not on the Team that did the memory analysis and the ultimate modern replacement memory. However, when I joined the Team, I asked similar questions and was told that the

Re: IBM 1620

On Thu, 27 Aug 2015, Lyle Bickley wrote: The IBM 1620 at the CHM is a running computer. There were two teams that worked on the 1620 at the CHM. The first Team got it running. Unfortunately, IBM used the wrong kind of solder on the core memory and so the wires of the core memory literally

Re: IBM 1620

On Fri, 28 Aug 2015, Lyle Bickley wrote: On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 20:31:16 -0500 (CDT) Tothwolf wrote: I think I've answered my own question today while looking at a datasheet for another type of solder. My guess is that the solder they used did not contain any copper, and the tin in the solder

Re: IBM 1620

On Fri, 28 Aug 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 08/28/2015 07:42 AM, Tothwolf wrote: With all the different solder alloys I work with regularly, I have to ask...what type of solder caused that sort of damage? Was it the alloy itself, or did IBM use a flux which was too active and then failed

RE: De-yellowing results

On Fri, 28 Aug 2015, Ali wrote: Ah! That explains my lack of results. I soaked the keys for five or six hours. They got clean, but didn't change color very much. Sounds like I pulled them out too soon. Several days, you say? Has anyone tried a glass/plexi-glass bath w/ UV lights? It might

Re: In Realtime: Saving 25,000 Manuals — August 15, 2015

On Mon, 24 Aug 2015, Jason Scott wrote: On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Dave Woyciesjes woycies...@sbcglobal.net wrote: On 08/21/2015 08:08 PM, Liam Proven wrote: On 15 August 2015 at 13:03, Liam Proven lpro...@gmail.com wrote: http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4683 Apologies if this is

Re: HP 5480A, or, obscure HP instruments

On Mon, 24 Aug 2015, Peter Brown wrote: Was there any resolution to the original request for HP5480A service information? I have fiches for this instrument as follows 1. 5480A - Signal Analyzer Operating manual Part 1 - 05480-90014(fiche) - 2 fiches, 60 pages per fiche 2. 5480A/B - Signal

Re: De-yellowing

On Sat, 22 Aug 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: On 08/21/2015 05:28 PM, Evan Koblentz wrote: So, how does one de-yellow something? I have a VT-100 and some other gear that could use that process. Google for Retr0brite. I've never tried the stuff - but is it a permanent fix, or does the

Re: HP 5480A, or, obscure HP instruments / was Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Thu, 20 Aug 2015, Jay Jaeger wrote: On 8/20/2015 7:11 AM, tony duell wrote: They reuse numbers for what I call marketing numbers. For example, with a LaserJet 8150dn, the 8150 is a marketing number and not the actual HP product number, which was C4267A. As far as I know they've never

Re: De-yellowing

On Sat, 22 Aug 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: On 08/22/2015 07:48 AM, Tothwolf wrote: On Sat, 22 Aug 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: On 08/21/2015 05:28 PM, Evan Koblentz wrote: Google for Retr0brite. I've never tried the stuff - but is it a permanent fix, or does the yellowing gradually

RE: De-yellowing

On Sat, 22 Aug 2015, Dave G4UGM wrote: On Sat, 22 Aug 2015, Pete Turnbull wrote: On 22/08/2015 13:50, Tothwolf wrote: On Sat, 22 Aug 2015, Dave G4UGM wrote: All the techniques discussed so far involve using a bleach of some kind and possibly UV light. Some use other materials so you have

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Fri, 21 Aug 2015, geneb wrote: On Fri, 21 Aug 2015, Evan Koblentz wrote: On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, et...@757.org wrote: Years ago I needed a HP service manual for a plotter I was trying to repair that I owned. HP of course wouldn't let me have it, so I had to buy a PDF copy from someone on

Re: Vintage Software Copyright

On Fri, 21 Aug 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 08/21/2015 10:11 AM, Rod Smallwood wrote: Yes OK and very long would be? It varies by country. In the case of the USA, 95 years from publication (for older works) Other countries employ the author's life+x years (usually 50 or 70)--live to a

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Sean Caron wrote: On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 7:50 PM, William Donzelli wdonze...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Tothwolf wrote: I have to disagree strongly with Will on this. There are quite a few PDF manual dealers who honestly deserve to go out of business. Those

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, William Donzelli wrote: Are you serious? Jason is currently sweating his balls off trying to save at least a portion of a huge warehouse of unique documentation under an incredibly tight deadline. Just for the record, the Manuals Plus hoard is not, in any way, a bunch

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Jason Scott wrote: On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, William Donzelli wrote: In closing, I might ask you to consider taking your sweet time getting this stuff online. There are still some manual dealers out there. Let them handle the decline of their business in whatever way they see

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, William Donzelli wrote: On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Jason Scott wrote: That is a most interesting metric. I honestly hadn't considered that issue. The key, I think, will be communication with them to understand which manuals have sales going on, and which ones it would be

Free manuals (was: Re: Manuals Plus preservation efforts update)

I just heard from Becky this afternoon (I've been in regular contact with her) and she has said that anything left is now up for grabs. This is part of what she wrote me today: If you know of anyone that wants to come here help themselves over the next two days they are welcome. (Only if you

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Tothwolf wrote: On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, William Donzelli wrote: Yes, let the guys keep selling the higher demand documents - HP, Tek, Heathkit. Nearly all of those are super common anyway (and plus, you will run into problems posting Heath material). Focus on the weirder

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

On Tue, 18 Aug 2015, Shoppa, Tim wrote: I certainly feel bitsavers is a good model, and although I'm physically not too far away from the stuff, I'm not sure I have much to offer other than disk space on a server for staging. http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4695 (previous link:

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, drlegendre . wrote: On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Vlad Stamate vlad.stam...@gmail.com wrote: I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and

Re: This Hobby Is Actually Useful!

On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, Robert Jarratt wrote: 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. I was using lead-free solder, its melting point is much lower than

Re: Unusual stuff inside computers

On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, Vlad Stamate wrote: Hi, I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I

Re: Reforming capacitors (technical description, not politics)

On Wed, 29 Jul 2015, drlegendre . wrote: On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 5:19 PM, Fred Cisin ci...@xenosoft.com wrote: On Wed, 29 Jul 2015, drlegendre . wrote: Incidentally, what exactly differentiates a computer-grade cap from any other alum. electrolytic? Maybe computer-grade don't need

Re: H960 blank panel clips

On Tue, 28 Jul 2015, Pete Turnbull wrote: On 27/07/2015 23:13, Tothwolf wrote: On Mon, 27 Jul 2015, John Wilson wrote: The only thing here is, it's a *terrible* design. Those damn nubs snap off so easily (I'm sure decades of outgassing haven't helped), even when you're expecting

Re: Chromatics on ebay

On Fri, 24 Jul 2015, William Donzelli wrote: Within the last year or so, eBay removed the ability to report a non-selling seller. The only way to report a seller for this now (so they get a strike on their account) is to pick up the phone and call eBay. You have to ask (demand) to speak to

Re: Chromatics on ebay

On Fri, 24 Jul 2015, William Donzelli wrote: Sounds like you are doing much better than me. Power Seller Master Race. Pfft...Nintendo forever! ;P Just a former Power Seller here...and all I got was this lousy mug and certificate.

Re: Chromatics on ebay

On Thu, 23 Jul 2015, William Donzelli wrote: That's just seller's remorse. It's obviously up to you, but I'd have strongly considered disputing it with eBay as a seller refusing to honor the auction results is every bit as bad (or even worse) than a buyer refusing to honor the auction

Re: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 07/22/2015 10:09 PM, Tothwolf wrote: One example I can give are some Pentium P55C architecture (Socket 7) systems which I've been running with minimal downtime for ~15 years. The original power supplies with their original (and relatively low

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, Noel Chiappa wrote: I am way out of my knowledge range in this discussion, but here's something I wanted to ask about: how do you reconcile this observation (assertion?) with the observations from several people (e.g. the PDP-1

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: I think he did answer it. If the unit is operating correctly then the capacitors must be sufficiently good at that time for that unit. Now, whether they will go on working is something that is very hard to tell. But that applies to every other component

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: Given that a typical aluminum electrolytic capacitor costs anywhere from $0.12-$0.15 (4mm or 5mm diameter radials) to about $1.00 (12mm or 16mm diameter radial), it also doesn't make much sense to desolder a 20 year old part, spend at a minimum 5 or more

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: On Wed, 22 Jul 2015, ANDY HOLT wrote: Do you seriously replace both headlight bulbs when one fails? I know of nobody who does that. Generally you carry a spare bulb kit and a screwdriver and if a bulb fails, pull over and change it. and - like the

Re: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Tue, 21 Jul 2015, Mike Stein wrote: I suspect that the real criterion for whether to shotgun-replace caps is who is paying/getting paid for the materials and labour ;-). I dunno about that. When I've done commercial boards such as industrial process controllers and CPUs for customers with

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Tue, 21 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: On Mon, 20 Jul 2015, Tothwolf wrote: Yes, the grid cap would /usually/ be a non-polarized wax paper type, which tend to be very unreliable. I've yet to find a wax paper type which will pass a leak test and those are also on my replace on sight list

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015, dwight wrote: I have rarely seen static damage to electronic parts. I can imagine that if I were in Nevada during winter time, I might see more. There were times when, even with a key to be the discharge point that my arm still jumped. On parts, the ones I've seen that I

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Mon, 20 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: Replace - yes, *especially* if you don't have a big budget. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are CHEAP and easy to obtain. Replacement semiconductors by comparison are expensive and can be quite difficult to find. Err, have you priced the

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Mon, 20 Jul 2015, Rich Alderson wrote: On Sat, 18 Jul 2015, Peter Coghlan wrote: Rich Alderson ri...@livingcomputermuseum.org wrote: It is generally a good idea to re-form electrolytic capacitors in power supplies, and to bench check the power supplies (under some kind of load) before

Re: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Mon, 20 Jul 2015, Mark J. Blair wrote: Now on the topic of capacitors: The only component type that I replace on sight at this point are the Rifa paper-dielectric EMI suppression caps. Had one go incendiary on me so far, and I do a replace-on-sight routine on them because my hypothesis of

RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved

On Fri, 17 Jul 2015, tony duell wrote: Perhaps. But not all of it, certainly. I'm currently four for four fixing dead flatscreens by re-capping their power supplies; I imagine others have similar experiences. It's not a huge stretch to imagine This could be taken to show that modern

Re: Old HP test equipment power connectors...

On Thu, 28 May 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: On 05/27/2015 04:18 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: I did a little checking today--I compared a male 163-type receptacle with a C14 receptacle. The mounting ear holes appear to have the same spacing; the C14 is about 3/4 thick, where the 163 (metal shell)

Re: Old HP test equipment power connectors...

On Tue, 26 May 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 05/26/2015 08:28 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote: Like wulfman and chuck and as described on my page, I replace the chassis inlet whenever I can, although occasionally it's not possible due to proximity of other chassis elements as the IEC inlet is slightly