I look back fondly on the IBM PC-XT of 41 years ago. It was very pricy here
in the Great North but it allowed for a much more advanced computing
environment. What one could do with a 10MB hard disk! Granted it was far
more popular in the business world than the consumer one. However, it made
possible much greater developments that hobbyists and experimenters latched
onto.
Happy computing!
Murray 😊
Hello classic computing fans! The new website for VCF Midwest is up at
https://vcfmw.org. Who knows the design inspiration without asking a
(Commodore) friend?? Apologies if it doesn't render well on your device.
I don't have your device!
Room booking for the show will open this afternoon (Friday 3/8). It will
be announced via the mailing list and a refresh of this web page (at the
"HOTEL" link.)
Lots more rooms this time, and we're starting with an empty block. But
it's still best to book early if you want to stay at the show hotel!
See you in September...
-jt
I'm gathering photos of Lisp machines (of all makes and models). If
you've got them scanned already, that's great, otherwise I have a
scanner if you're willing to entrust your photos to me temporarily.
Let's take replies off-list unless you think it'll be of general
interest to subscribers.
Thanks,
John
I hope a 1974 desk calculator (Radio Shack EC-2000, a re-badged TI-3500)
is considered sufficiently both classic and computer for this list. :)
The one IC, a TI TMS0106NC, has failed and I'm searching everywhere for
a replacement. There's an -0103 on ebay from the same family which would
substitute, but it's only 8 digits and this is a 10 digit machine. Plus
it's $31 with postage, more than the calculator itself is worth!
If anyone has one, or knows where I can get this IC, new or a pull,
please let me know.
Thanks!
Hi! Remember the blearrnnnnt-meeeeeelrp sounding seek oscillation noise
that the RD54 makes when you turn it on -- after it spins up, unlatches and
loads the heads?
Well, I took a chance on an el-(c)heapo ePay special RD54 that does all
these things perfectly up until the seek oscillation thing and then only
makes one steady meeee- sound that seems to last indefinitely (or at least
until I get tired of listening to it after a few minutes).
Would anyone here know enough about these disks to venture a guess at where
to begin troubleshooting this?
thx
jake
P.S. If I'm being too vague, let me restate: I can hear it spin up,
bearings sound normal, hear it unlock its head lock latch, then a perfectly
*slight* noise of head actuation and the normal accompanying barely audible
riding-on-air head noise. Then I expect to hear the two seek tones, but
only get one steady seek tone that lasts (I assume) forever.
I have a Visual 50 terminal that I am now troubleshooting. I got it in the
late 1980s and it worked fine until 1995. I can't find a good schematic for
it or ROM images. Its symptom is that it powers up to continual beep (solid
tone, not repeated beeps) with a cursor on the screen. This is not in the
troubleshooting table of the manual that I have.
I know the keyboard is capacitive foam pads. I was hoping that was the
trouble, but it is not. I disassembled the keyboard and removed the old
pads, replacing a few with some spares I had from SOL20 repairs.
Has anyone corrected this problem before? I suspect that the EPROMs are
going.
Thanks,
Bill Sudbrink
--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com
> Googling for "mirror uxc.cso.uiuc.edu" found me one hopeful hit:
> https://www.funet.fi > pub > misc > Notes.README
Ron,
Another good search approach that I hadn't thought of. Many thanks!
De
Does anyone have or know of an archive of old mod.sources (predecessor
of comp.sources.unix) posts? I know googlegroups has it, but that only
means nothing since it's effectively inaccessible there.
De
Hi all,
I recently acquired a very nice decwriter III and it seems in good nick. However, the self test "hangs" on the return direction of the second line. Here is a video on it:
https://youtu.be/pj6rk5Dlnbk
Anyone have any ideas where to look? In local mode, it appears to work properly. I haven't tried any external serial connection yet.
73 Eugene W2HX
My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@w2hx/videos
Fellow nerds,
not sure who knows about this project, so here an announcement ... again?
As QBUS PDP-11s (03,23,73,83,93, also uVAX) don't have lots of
lamps&switches
like the old UNIBUS machines, their owners suffer on "Blinkenlight envy".
So I was pushed to pimp up the QBUS diagnostic adapter "QProbe"
https://www.retrocmp.com/tools/qprobe
Model "QProbe2023" has now focus on entertainment.
There's a QBUS signal display in style of old PDP-10/12/15 rack header
panels.
It can be build into a 5.25" drive case ... or into the BA23 case itself.
https://www.retrocmp.com/tools/qprobe/327-qprobe2023-overview
By lucky incident you can even see the idle loop pattern of RSX11M+ on some
J11 systems. See a full boot of RSX11M+ at time index 5:56 of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajAcxGwK-vQ
As it also has RESTART/HALT/AUX switches, it's also helpful for PDP-11s
mounted
case-less in a standalone backplane (like the one at
https://retrocmp.com/projects/lsibox and on the "Frankenstein" video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoW7Szkppww&t=403s )
Btw for unknown reasons, I cannot register to classiccmp itself ... CC
me direct in your replies.
kind regards,
Joerg
