Yesterday, I picked up what I thought was a VAXstation colour video cable
at a recyclers. I had nefarious reasons for doing so, and ended up being
disappointed to find out it didn't work with my VAXstation (3100m76, GPX).
What other systems used DA15 (socket) <-> 3 BNC video cables that also
featured mid-cable breakout for keyboard/mouse?
The give-away should've been that the keyboard connector is not an
RJ-style jack. Instead, it has mini-DIN6 (PS/2-style) keyboard and mouse
connectors.
ok
r.
G'day DEC'heads-
While updating our Data General-oriented web site I've added a new DEC photo
section to the web site just for nostalgia sake:
http://www.simulogics.com/nostalgia/DEC/dec.htm
I've also updated the list of of our scanned DG docs at:
http://www.simulogics.com/archives/manuals/DG.htm
so you can see what is currently available upon request.
More vendor docs can be found by tracking down the appriate vendor selection
at:
http://www.simulogics.com/archives/manuals/manuals.htm
This site is being extensively updated over the next week, and comments,
ridicule, questions and suggestions always welcomed -
(and I am still interested in obtaining an 8/E, 8/L or 8/I if anybody has a
working system seeking a caring home)
Bruce Ray
bkr(a)SimuLogics.com
-or-
bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com
On what a 8050 drive can work on
Every PET/CBM except the ones with the original ROMs, and the CBM II
series (B128, P500, B600, 700, etc.)
The 8050 is a dual 1/2 megabyte (per floppy) drive using quad density
(96tpi) single sided disks (not to be confused with high density, I have
read double density disks can be used in a pinch), usualy more common to
find 8050 software disks used in the CBM business line or the CBM-II
(B1-28) line then in the mass consumer PETs.
Unfortunaltely it cannot read 1541 or 2040/4040/2031 disks. But I have
heard you can read a half of a 8250 disk with it (8250 is a dual sided
quad density drive)
see also: http://www.jps.net/foxnhare/petfaq.html
On the cable...
> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 09:22:00 -0500
> From: "Russ Blakeman" <rhblake(a)bigfoot.com>
> Subject: Hmm...what the heck kind of cable is this????
>
> In a batch of power adapters and cables I found a stereotypical Commodore
> style beige serial type cable, having the DIN plug on the end - but only on
> one end. The other end is a 25 pin female d-sub. I know it's factory as the
> housing for the 25 pin has the C= emblem molded into it.
...
> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 12:04:13 -0500
> From: "Russ Blakeman" <rhblake(a)bigfoot.com>
> Subject: RE: Hmm...what the heck kind of cable is this????
>
> Okay I looked quick and "assumed" it was a 25, might be a 23...I completely
> forgot that it might be video. I guess they are made strictly for Commodore
> brand monitors...
23 pin d-sub mini to DIN is a 1084 monitor (DIN) to Amiga (23 pin d-sub
mini) cable. For that monitor to an 8-bit it would have been DIN to DIN
(not sure of the monitor configuration though). Commodore for a short
time used these nasty DIN connectors on their 1084 monitors which were
non standard... (probably got a deal on DIN jacks, eh?)
I belive Magnavox did release some of thier branded monitors with that
connetor too... :/
--
01000011 01001111 01001101 01001101 01001111 01000100 01001111 01010010 01000101
Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (209) 754-1363
300-14.4k bps
Classic Commodore pages at: http://www.jps.net/foxnhare/commodore.html
01000011 01001111 01001101 01010000 01010101 01010100 01000101 01010010 01010011
In a message dated 4/25/01 4:59:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
cisin(a)xenosoft.com writes:
<< > > supply is only about 33 watts. The expansion unit has extra
> > memory in it that is not being seen by the system unit; I
> > suspect that is because the +5 output on the power supply
> > is reading about 1.8 volts. (According to a digital
On some expansion memory units for the PC-Jr the extra memory is NOT seen
by the system until certain "special" software is run.
>>
if it's the IBM sidecar that plugs in, the system should detect it
automagically. I have one on my hard drive equipped jr that was modded so the
computer has 640k total.
--
DB Young Team OS/2
old computers, hot rod pinto and more at:
www.nothingtodo.org
Picked the issue at the news stand today that had the 2 page article on
classic computers staring our own Sellam Ismail. It was fun reading and
now I have to see this former car plant that serves as your warehouse.
I have to get me rich uncle so that I can get that kind of space.
Articles like this are great for our collecting efforts as more and more
people learn about they seek us out to donate their old computers. Keep
up the good work.
I recently acquired some old DEC equipment
that that two RRD40 drives with SCSI adapters.
I quickly replaced them with some real SCSI
CDROM drives.
Now, I enjoy classic equipment and like to
see it preserved, but I draw the line on
the RRD40 drives. They deserve to die.
However, there may be some people that may
actually want these oddball drives and
SCSI adapters, so if you want them, they
are yours. All I ask is that you pay for
shipping, and I really only want to ship
these in the US.
There are no caddies available, and if you
aren't familiar with the RRD40 drives they
don't use the standard caddies. Also, one
of the drives has a CD in it, and when I
booted the unit before removing the drives
the CD was labeled as an OpenVMS V7.1 doc
disk. However, I don't know if that is
accurate, since I didn't bother taking a
look at the contents. I also don't know
if the CD or drive will survive shipping
with the CD in place.
Also, the SCSI adapters are only for the
RRD40 drives and I've removed the three
ICs that are useful to me from each board.
So, if you want them let me know by Friday,
or I'll just trash them, without honor, and
without dignity.
Can you guess that I've had to install a
VMS upgrade with an RRD40 drive and had
to swap several CDs to load layered products
with only two caddies? I really, really,
really don't like RRD40 drives.
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
Subject:
Re: MicroMation
Date:
Wed, 25 Apr 2001 18:02:44 -0700
From:
Christopher Menke <chrismenke(a)excite.com>
To:
ndiablo(a)diablonet.net
References:
1
Hi everyone! I was kindly offered this computer system, but it is
extremely
out of my range. He said it would be alright if I forwarded it to the
list,
so here goes. Contact address and caveats below.
>Sean,
>I was hoping that Diable might have been the Diablo valley here in the San
>Francisco area. I think these machins would be quite expensive to ship ,as
>each box is 50lbs+ and each terminal is likely 50lbs as well.
>You may forward my offer to whomever, as long as the chrismenke(a)excite.com
>address is used, and you throw a caveat in there that I would not like to
>be contacted regarding anything else.
>As to your Sun stuff, I too am using an IPC as my household server, but I'm
>looking for something to play with on my desktop.
>Cheers,
>Chris
>Christopher Menke wrote:
>>
>> I have a large Micromation computer, which I believe consists of a CPU,
>> 10 MB 12 inch platter hard drive, and a ancillary box with two 8 inch
>> floppies. Also included are two TeleVideo 900 terminals.
>>
>> Yours for the shipping, or the pickup, or trade for old Sun stuff if you
>> wanna get rid of any.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Chris
>
>Hi! Thanks for your very gracious offer. Just out of curiousity, where
>are you located? Depending on if you are nearby, I may be interested,
>but if you are outside of the southwest Michigan area it would probably
>be prohibitively expensive to ship the entire system.
>
>I've got some older Sun equipment around, nothing spectacular, however.
>Primarily old SPARCstation IPC systems that actually would run fine
>given hard drives, some RAM, and a live IDPROM. Lots of spare CG3
>SBus graphics cards too, but those are probably of limited interest.
>
>If you are out of my range, would it be alright if I were to forward
>your offer to the classic computer collector's mailing list? If I am
>not capable of finding a home for the system myself, I'm sure there
>would be someone who would!
>
>Thanks again,
>
>--Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net
--Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net
I've always wanted a PCjr with an expansion chassis on it, but
they were pretty expensive, and I got by without one. 15 years
later I have found one on Ebay and bought it, but alas it's not
a happy ending. There are at least two serious problems that I
need to fix.
The first problem is a broken I/O pin on the expansion bus
that comes off the motherboard. The pin is in a 60 pin
rectangular connector, and spacing is tight. he broken pin
is a data line pin, so if I don't fix it, I can't add any
sidecars to the machine. How does one go about replacing
a pin? Is it possible? Or am I going to have to desolder the
connector and try to replace the entire connector? (And I'm
not good with a soldering iron ... I can't even tin wires.)
The second problem looks to be a bad power supply. The
expansion unit has it's own power supply because the PCjr power
supply is only about 33 watts. The expansion unit has extra
memory in it that is not being seen by the system unit; I
suspect that is because the +5 output on the power supply
is reading about 1.8 volts. (According to a digital
multimeter.) I measured this with everything connected,
so there certainly is enough load. (I don't think that
this is even a switching power supply, so the load issue
is moot.)
The power supply has a "pick" line that is
probably activated from the main unit, so that it doesn't
have to have an independent power switch. How does such
a pick line work? Is there a way to fool it on? What
does it use for a ground? (I didn't see one clearly
labeled that belonged to the pick line ... perhaps it
was the same ground as the +5v line?)
How can I confirm that this power supply is truly
toast? And it is, then how do I replace it? (I'm willing
to scab in a reasonable substitute - it probably can't be
a switching supply though because there won't be enough
load - it's probably only 512KB of chips on board.
The expansion unit is a Rapport if that helps anybody.
Thanks,
Mike
Robert, you are awesome! I would very much appreciate if you took
some pictures. I did some more experiment today and had quite strange
results. Now that I understand that the two black and the brown wires
are the three phases and the blue is null, I hooked up brown with P1,
the two black ones with P2 and blue with null. When I plugged in,
I saw the power line controll lights 2 and 3 flash up real quick and
then they were out. When I turned on the main power (T-switch) I could
measure 110 V at the auxiliary receptacles as it should be. However,
I could not find any 220 V at the round plug. I tried two variants:
with leaving protective ground open or closing it at N (I know,
this was only temporary ...) When I had protective GND on N I would
see the PL1 controll light flash tooo. But I never got any 220 V
between any of the pins on the round connector. Now this may be
because I tried with the power unit from the VAX that has some
(unknown) power problems.
> The cable that connects the round
> connector to the `power & logic box' has only six wires, two from each
> phase. There are a number of other connections available on the round
> connector, which leads me to believe it's a standard part for anumber of
> different power schemes.
>From the inside it looks as if each lead goes to at least two of those
pins. This would seem reasonable as the pins themselves look pretty
small for 800 W full power ...
> Here's the fun part! Inside the `power & logic box', all three phases (
> no neutral!) follow a simple path thru a 20A 600V fuse, and then into a
> full-wave bridge rectifier, DEC part number 11-26520-01. A couple of MOVs
> offer some protection from transients, and yet more filtering.
>
> Now, the good news:
>
> It should be possible to simply apply 220 volt single phase (common dryer
> power) to any two of the hot wires on the three phase plug! No neutral is
> needed for the computer itself, altho any accessories plugged into the
> lower power-distribution box will need one. These pose a small problem in
> that they are connected to different hots to more evenly balance the load
> on the three phase supply, but worst case they can be easily tied on to
> one phase inside the box-- best case don't use them!
>
> I'll be making a cable to replace the factory assembly, and rewireing the
> distribution box to single phase, I believe. It should be 100% reversable.
My plan is to buy a receptacle box for the original power plug and
wire that box near my extra circuit-breaker box in the laundry /
computer room in the basement. Given that the stange behavior of the
power control lights are explained and my mistake in measuring the
round connector's voltage output is discovered, is there anything to
rewire inside the AC power box?
I wonder, are we the first ones to fire up their 6000 in their private
dwellings? BTW: has anyone noticed major interference with radios or
TVs (the label on the machine talks about it ...)
regards
-Gunther
