Looking for an Acorn A3010 or A4000 + KB/Mouse, happy to repair it.
Also Sinclair +3 with some disks
Also BBC Micro
Also Amstrad CPC 6128 color. Could forgo monitor and build my own PSU.
- Ethan
Hello All,
I have a PDP 11/05 that I’ve been restoring slowly over the last few years. I’m to the point now where I’d like to get a paper tape reader attached to it. The only reader I can find in my junk is a Bower Associates BAI Data Products model 1230 punch. I’ve put a picture of it here for the curious:
https://imgur.com/a/xJ2hyTS
Imgur
imgur.com
I can’t find any documentation online about this machine. I’m wondering if anyone else has any ideas, or might know anything about this. It’s going to need some TLC to bring it to life, and some documentation would certainly be nice.
This particular unit was used by the Atmospheric Environment Service, Department of the Environment of Canada (according to a label on the back). It looks to be complete, except the punch bin is missing (not a big deal).
Anyway, I thought I’d throw it out there in case anyone happens to know anything about this, before I tear in to it.
Thanks!!
Ian
I had a dream ; that someone makes a small telnet to chatgpt gateway (using azure chatgpt API possibly ?) So that we could telnet our retro devices to the hype of the year, and get chtgpt answers in our TRS80, PDP and such.
Hello, I recently got my IBM 029 keypunch working, and am expanding the
search for a punched card reader.
Ideally RS-232, but unknown protocol or parallel is fine also. Repair
required is also fine :).
Thanks for any help!
-Eric
Hello,
I could use some help making sense of the VAXstation ROM images.
A set is provided here: https://www.9track.net/roms/
The two .bin files are each one halfword of a 16-bit wide ROM for the
68000 display processor. I checked it, and it's fine.
My problem is with the Bit Blit Accelator. The board has four Am2901
bitslice processors to make up a 16-bit custom blitter. The information
I have is that the microcode is 57 bits wide and there should be 1024
words. However, this is not a great match for the rest of the ROM
images.
Some of the BBA ROMs seem to be bit masks, presumably useful for
rendering graphics. But none of them seem to match what I'd expect to
see for a 57x1024 microcode.
Here are the sizes, in bits, of the ROMs:
Bit Blit Accelerator (BBA)
23-066K3.jed 2048
23-067K3.jed 2048
23-068K3.jed 2048
23-069K3.jed 2048
23-076F4.e32 16384
23-077F4.e65 16384
23-077J5.jed 2048
23-078J5.jed 2048
23-354A1.e33 256
23-355A1.e66 256
23-356A1.e77 256
23-357A1.e85 256
Display Processor Module (DPM)
23-020L1.jed 3553
23-021L1.jed 3553
23-022L1.jed 3553
23-023L1.jed 3553
23-024L1.jed 3553
23-025L1.jed 3553
23-288E4.bin 65536 68000 code in these two.
23-289E4.bin 65536
Hello, I am looking for 3/16ths inch ink ribbon as used on the IBM 029
keypunch.
I have one lightly damaged ribbon that is entirely dry. I was told by a
typewriter restorationist that ribbon re-inking with nylon never works.
Has anyone had much success cleaning and rewetting ink ribbons? The WD40
trick on the internet seems like it would gunk up the punch mechanism.
Thanks for any information yall can provide,
-Eric
Some thoughts on this day of working on MFM drives:
1) MFM drives are just going bad. They were always kind of meh in terms
of reliability, but I think even since 2019 (the last time I checked
these drives) things have gotten worse. Drives which were readable and
good then are now either shot or throwing errors and they have had an
easy 3+ years in my upstairs room.
2) There are at least two RQDX3 ROM sets. The earlier one does not
support the RX33 floppy and doesn't give any info during formatting. The
later version (Version 4) does support the RX33 and is a lot nicer.
3) Seagate drives seem to be pretty good, especially the 20mb ones. They
have no problems, work well, and are pretty right-sized for an RT11 system.
4) RD53 drives are weird. Their main failure is the drive head
positioner just gets stuck and needs to be worked loose. Unfortunately
that requires removing the lid. Fortunately there is a good filter in
the drive along with an air handler that runs air from inside the drive
body through the filter, then into the spindle where it is blown over
the heads. Result is a pretty clean drive on the inside and so far
opening the lid doesn't seem to be a recipe for instant destruction. Go
figure.
I may try an RD53 in one of my Pro/380's. It's about time I loaded up
the final version of P/OS, as I can use the Gotek floppy to load
everything instead of screwing with the RX50's. Or can I do that and
switch disks on the fly with a single Gotek... Hm.
5) For anything bigger, it's time to retire the MFM drives. Unlike
RL02's these things just were not that reliable when new and at this
point are kind of falling apart. I have not had any trouble with the
ESDI disks, but it might just be a matter of time. Perhaps I should look
into duplexing my 330mb CDC drive in the 11/84....
CZ
After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active again
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