Once they are broke, they are broke, trust me on this, You can remove the
keycaps, but the switch itself is sealed in one piece.
----------
> From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)crl.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: apple II - SCORE!
> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 1997 12:40 PM
>
> On Tue, 24 Jun 1997 jpero(a)mail.cgo.wave.ca wrote:
>
> > Nip! Sad story about key problem...
> >
> > Can't you take that switch apart and clean it with alcohol? I had to
> > do that on my "speedy". Generic keyboard but used good quality gold
> > contacts switch in it only minor cleaning there then it worked 100%
> > The one key tab needed pounding to get anything but now I just
> > merely poke it. :) Total time of repair: 15 to 20 mins.
>
> I don't think you can do that with apple keys. Once they're broke
> they're broke. I could be wrong about this. I've just never tried it.
> At the time, I don't think I would've had the dexterity necessary to fix
> the key. At the very least I didn't have the brain capacity to think
> about it.
>
>
> Sam
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
> Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer,
Jackass
Im gonna take a risk here, but do any of these folks collect computers,
maybe the recent conversations havn't driven them nuts and they can give us
some information about old computers rather than start some type of
political hate crime debate. GROW UP EVERYONE.
----------
> From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn(a)crl.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Why?
> Date: Monday, June 23, 1997 8:09 PM
>
> At 06:43 PM 6/21/97 +0000, you wrote:
> >I accept that....but you are such a big country. Isn't it about time you
> >start looking outside and try to understand other cultures? (no offence
>
> But we are a country of other cultures. My father came over from Germany
as
> a boy. My mother was of english descent (going back to Ann Boleyn and
> Katherine(?) Howard, two of Henry VIII's wives). My sister is an
honorary
> Nigerian. My girlfriend is Russian, French Canadian, and who knows what
> else. Her sister-in-law is a philippina. Some of my best friends
include
> jamaicans, scotsman, irish, french, german, native american, japanese,
> chinese, aussies, South African, eritrean, and so on.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
>
> Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
> sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
> Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
> San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Something is odd here. There was some 25 PCjr messages in my box.
Somehow the discussion didn't get to me 'til it was underway.
I did go through them but I don't know anything. :)
Anyway, assuming PC Enterprises still carries this stuff, you might want
to check with them. The catalogue also doubles as an information source
since they give a few paragraphs on various tech stuff.
For instance what happens when your system board malfunctions, etc.
Here's some stuff from their PCjr catalogue that may
be of interest. There's a lot so this is just a few.
PCjr System Board #78739 $98
Power Supply Transformer (brick) #78712 $44
PCjr Power Supply Card (original) #78707 $49.95
PCjr Power Supply Card (heavy duty) #78729 $69.95
64K Memory & Display Expansion #78709 $50
Cartridge BASIC #78722 $119
Configuration Plus Cartridge #18026 $29.95
Allows for using BASIC/BASICA if you don't have
Cartridge BASIC
Compatibility Cartridge #18032 $39.95
Allows for running "modern" DOS apps that normally have
problems with the PCjr BIOS
Combo Cartridge V3.0 #18034 $89.95
Combination of four different cartridges (available separatly):
Compatibility, Quicksilver (memory speedup), Keyboard Buffer,
jrVideo (video speedup).
jrExcellerator Speed-up Board #14802 $99
Megaboard Sidecard #14031 $199
Adds 1MB to anything else you already have.
Load High Sidecar #97509 $35
Brings 640K system to 736K
There's a lot more (drives, video, etc.). Also info and memory expansion
for Rapport, Racore, and Quadram users.
This catalogue is from 1995 and no doubt they don't have everything
anymore (if their lack of Tandy parts is any indication).
PC Enterprises is the reason I have EMS and SCSI on my Tandy 1000 HX
but most of the stuff they used to have is no more.
1-800-922-7257 or 908-280-0025.
Getting help is also a problem.
Marc
--
>> ANIME SENSHI <<
Marc D. Williams
marcw(a)lightside.com
marc.williams(a)mb.fidonet.org
IRC Nick: Senshi Channel: #dos #IrcHelp
http://www.agate.net/~tvdog/internet.html -- DOS Internet Tools
Will someone please remove me from this list. Thank you.
--
+------------------------------------+
! Thomas Jarvis Bigshaker on IRC !
! ghjorth(a)sn.no Y.C.D.B.S.O.Y.A. !
+------------------------------------+
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.
At 00:02 22-06-97 PDT, you wrote:
<snip>
>Well, to get more specific, I have the (perhaps wrong) feeling that:
>
>a) You are against collectors who collect for the historical importance
>onyl and are not really worried if the item works or not (as long as all
>the parts are in there and the thing can be made to work if and when
>required). I have been ridiculized when I suggested this one way to go
>about collecting.
??? What on God's green Earth would make you think that? I collect a few
bits and pieces mainly for historical value (I've got an original Seagate
ST212 in one of my Micro-PDP11's that I don't ever plan to use; just
exhibit), and I've never been ridiculed.
Even if you have been jeered at, what of it? People have taken plenty of
pokes at me for my open criticism of Bill Gates, Microsoft, Intel, et al,
and my collecting of DEC stuff that's at least ten years old. My take on
this? Let 'em jeer. I see them as narrow-minded victims of the Wintel
monopoly's marketing sharks, and I am confident in the fact that I'll
likely forget more about computer hardware than such people will ever learn.
>b) You are against collectors who want ot take out bits and pieces from
>the systems in order to show them separately (but retaining and perhaps
>even ehibiting the "crippled" item). I have been refused help in thsi
>respect when it became apparent I was going to do this.
I don't see an issue with this. What I do have a problem with is people
who just blindly throw 'bits and pieces' or entire machines on the scrap
heap just because they think they're "obsolete" (an overused word if ever
there was one!)
>c) You are against helping "foreigners" (and therefore "different")
>collectors to export "your" stuff perhaps in the wrong perception that
>it will diminish the heritage of the country (yours). I have striken a
?!? Good Lord, man, who's been beating you up? I would WELCOME aiding
anyone, in any country, that wanted to restore or collect some piece of
hardware that I'm familiar with and needed help to get it going (I
obviously can't be of much help with stuff I don't know anything about).
Tell you what... if you want proof of this, at least from me, I'd be happy
to offer any aid I can with the equipment that I'm familiar with. That
includes DEC stuff, from the PDP11/03 on up through the MicroPDP's and
VAXen. There are others on here who, I'm sure, would be willing to help you
in their particular areas of expertise.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Today's scrounging haul:
TI99/4 Impact Printer, clean, working, new ribbon $ 1.00
Mac 20mb SCSI external hard drive $20.00
200 360k floppys, new in boxes of 10 $ 3.00
Mac ADB coil cord $
1.00
Tandy CoCo/1000 delux joystick NIB $ 1.00
Passed up on a C64 with PSU $ 3.00, Amiga A500 NIB $ 25.00, C-128 $1.00
(looked a little well used), Apple 2e $ 5.00 with Disk II.
This is a message I sent to the Electronic Organ list today. They were
discussing simulating a pipe organ with a computer.
I looked at the Alphasyntauri in my collection, and thought "Been there,
done that . . ."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 08:40:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Charles P. Hobbs" <transit(a)primenet.com>
Cc: EORG-L(a)CFRVM.CFR.USF.EDU
Subject: Computer simulation of an organ
Anyone here heard of the AlphaSyntauri?
This was an organ keyboard, connected to an Apple II computer. The Apple
was equipped with sixteen 8-bit DACs (digital-analog converters). The
DACs converted digital waveforms (sequences of numbers in the Apple's RAM)
to analog, audio signals.
The AlphaSyntauri could play up to eight notes simultaneously (2 DACs were
normally assigned to each note). Tonalities could be easily selected via
software. There were even Fourier-analysis tools allowing the users to
make and manipulate their own waveforms.
This instrument was popular in the early 80's, but died out before the
age of MIDI. By that time, its output (8 bit DACs, relatively low sampling
rate) had made the instrument obsolete for most serious musicians (I have
one as a collector's item).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles P. Hobbs __ __ ____ ___ ___ ____
transit(a)primenet.com /__)/__) / / / / /_ /\ / /_ /
/ / \ / / / / /__ / \/ /___ /
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> So I am asking *you*, lover of the hardware to reconsider your thoughts
> and ask yourself what would your collection mean without all of the
> above. I, for one, will be glad to learn that you had second toughts
> about this. In either cases it could be useful to read here your
> motivations.
Interesting comment.
More information on the AIMs. I am currently working on a bulk deal with
Mike for $20 a piece. While these are truly AIMs, they are not "stock"
AIMs. They have been altered (really improved). While I think the
improvements are very nice, I would've preferred a stock AIM. However,
these definitely sound like nice units. Anyway, here's the scoop.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 15:45:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mikeooo1(a)aol.com
To: dastar(a)crl.com
Subject: Re: AIM65
Gentlemen,
In response to all the interest so many of you have shown in my Aim 65
collection let me say that they are all in new working condition.The beauty
about the Aim 65 is that it was a single board computer which was self
contained in that it had its display,printer,and memory all mounted on its
board so that peripheral attachments weren't necessary.Yes,it comes with a
keyboard and power supply also.I developed a plastic enclosure and metal base
and ROM board for the system so the keyboard and power supply could be housed
with the Aim in a compact unit and programs could be burned onto eproms which
would seat in the ROM board rather than rely on tape storage which involves a
recorder hookup and would be quite slow. I didn't like the enclosure or the
unwieldy power supply that Rockwell created for the Aim so I had my own
plastic enclosure injection molded by a plastics manufacturer. I had a metal
base manufactured for the unit so it could be professionally represented as
an industrial computer rather than just the "hobbyist's computer" Rockwell
originally designed it for.I also have production equipment I developed for
creating programs downloading them directly from the Aim into the RAM buffer
of eprom burning devices and ultimately housing the programmed eproms in the
ROM board I developed which sat on the bottom of the case housing.I have
built a successful company around the Aim which is truly an amazing computer
and has withstood the test of time as many people are still using it today.As
for its value,the unit sold for approx.$450 (computerboard and keyboard) and
its part are still in demand today.The display chips alone cost $30 apiece
and there are 5 on each display while the print head alone sells for $105,the
entire printer about $180.
