If anyone on the list can help this guy, please email him directly
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David Dal Bianco <centenni(a)npiec.on.ca>
Welland, ONT Canada - Tuesday, May 12, 1998 at 11:30:41
I have an Osborne Portable computer, Model OCC 1. I would like to
get it up and running, but lack information
on it such as operating system, start-up procedure and available
memory. If anyone knows about this model of
computer, please contact me.
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Russ Blakeman
RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
ICQ UIN #1714857
AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN"
* Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers*
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<Now it is possible that the modems I had available then were different
<from current ones, this was in 1993 and I was working with 1200 or 2400
<baud modems.
No difference. DC on the line was used to sense off hook. It's possible
to ignore the associated line status bit, standard software(dialers,
terminal emulators" would likely look at it and indicate an error. Most
modems use this to indicate a live line and not already in use.
Carrier tone (dial tone) is the next level up to indicating a live line
and dialing is possible.
In any case if these are worked around one modem must be originate and
the other answer so the signal sense is correct.
While it could be handy and made for a real simple two wire interconnect
it's slower than serial direct.
<If you can give me references to documents describing modem and phone lin
<electrical standards I would appreciate it.
Not handy, I'm sure it's on the net.
Allison
< If all else fails you may want to try a low level format on the hard
< drive. Boot with a MS-Dos ver 2.10 or later, run debug. At the '_'
< prompt type in g=c800:5 which should access the controller rom and
< enable you to low level format (it is <crudely> menu driven). Your
< Tandon has 306 cylinders, 4 heads and 17 sectors per track. After the
< low level format procede with the high level partitioning and
< formatting.
<
Marty
That would work if it were a dos box. It's a kaypro CP/M machine with
hard disk via host adaptor.
However, in all likelyhood there are bad sectors on the drive and a
FORMAT of the drive may clear the errors. The problem is that you need
the floppies with the disk utilities to do that and restore the OS back to
the disk (never minding all the other stuff on it). Unlike dos when I say
FORMAT I mean literally a low level format of the media. This unlike the
dos initializing of the media to dos file system. Formattig the media
will erase all the data and files so if you didn't backup, you loose.
How do the bad sectors arise? Heat, age and centrifical force assuming
there were no mechanical or electrical events to munge the media. The
older ST506/412 and similar drives tended to need a low level format from
time to time over their mechanical life.
Allison
"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>If you have access to USENET the Amiga newsgroups are some of the best left
>(man has USENET gone down hill since I first started using it).
(Insert sound of crusty old man voice) "I was on the fricking net before
they even called it the Internet!"
>Just beware the euphoria is running extremally high with everyone waiting for
>the big announcement from Amiga, Inc. at "World of Amiga" in London this
>weekend. The hype is this announcement will change the face of computing,
>PERIOD, and will feature some BIG names.
(Insert sound of Monty Python "Black Knight" sketch, appropriate to
Amigoids who hop around on one leg shouting "It's not dead yet.")
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
>>> By your later e-mail, you have that image form some website. Good, as it
>>> would be almost impossible to make a reasonable ascii sketch of it. They
>>> glow blue (what gas is that? argon?) and are viewed through a green filter.
>>
>> Is it a gas discharge or a fluorescent anode? The latter are often green/blue
>
> I think gas discharge, as they have the mesh anode that you referred to
> in another message.
Hmmm. I'm not convinced. IIRC, vacuum fluorescent displays have a hot
wire cathode (thin, hard to spot) at the front, a mesh electrode near
the back (anode?) and targets with greyish paint on them at the back.
These targets usually glow blue-greenish when hit by electrons. But it
is the paint that glows.
Gas discharge has the cathode suspended in the gas, and it is the gas
around it that glows, not the surface of the cathode. I have never seen
a blue one, but I imagine argon is more likely than mercury vapour
(which radiates mostly UV).
Philip.
>> It was also not the display I have in my other digital voltmeter
>> (Dynamco, I think) which has as digits a multilayer Perspex sandwich.
>> Each perspex layer has a dot pattern for a character drilled in it; you
>> light up a character by illuminating the edge of the appropriate perspex
>> wafer, and total internal reflection confines the light to that wafer,
>> thus lighting up the dot pattern of only the one character. Neat.
>
> I've seem those used with a 2-colour (black, or illuminated red)
> background for +ve or -ve results. Problem is, I can never remember if
> red is +ve (as an engineer would use) or -ve (as an accountant would
> use)... Actually, didn't Dynamco do that on some of their voltmeters?
IIRC my Dynamco uses red for negative.
Philip.
Alas, I have accepted a job offer that will take my family and me across
the country into a home smaller than one we are currently renting. The
Wife says that the Classic Computer Collection is NOT travelling with us.
To be fair, if it DID move, I would have to store the equipment in a
garage or something equally undesirable.
The following equipment is in need of rescue:
3 TRS80 Model I CPU's
two have keypads, one does not
all are LEVEL II, 16K
two have R/S lowercase mods, one has a non-R/S lc mod
2 Expansion Interface's
both have 32K of RAM
neither have functioning RS232 boards
one has a buffered cable and SD controller
one has non-buffered cable and R/S DD controller
a single R/S RS232 board with a blown line driver chip might
still be with us
4 R/S Shugart or Tandon Diskette Drives
Two are Drive 0 designates with terminating resistors
Two are Drive 1,2,3? without terminating resistors
1 VOXBOX - screws missing but functional at last test
1 TRS80 Voice Synthesizer - barely functioning at last test
1 TRS80 Line Printer 7
Box of Cassette-based tapes
Unfortunately, three TRS80 Model I Monitors got tossed accidentally in a
prior move, so I don't have any of these.
The computers are currently located in central New Jersey. I am hoping
that there is a local collector who would be interested in providing these
guys with a loving home. I am currently located in Baltimore, so I can't
ship them easily. Please reply via EMAIL if you are interested in
retrieving these pieces of computing history.
-Gary Katz
At 01:18 AM 5/11/98 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Its now official...the Second Annual Vintage Computer Festival will be
>held on September 26-27 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa
>Clara, California.
On a similar note, there's going to be a World of Atari show in Las Vegas
in August. Kinda like MacWorld, only for Atari's. (And much, much,
bigger. 8^) Anyway, sounds like a lot of fun; unfortunately I won't be
able to make it. However, the guy from Sacto said that if WoA is
successful, he'll think about doing another Sacramento Atari Expo... So
go, make it a big success...
P.S., Sam, I forgot to mention that I'll be happy to bring over anything in
my collection (except the big Symbolics machines or the HP3000 8^) to put
on display, and I'll be after a table too, I think, to unload some of the
Mac stuff Rachel's not using at school.
Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
