test-drb December 2002

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

250 participants
519 discussions

by lott＠austarnet.com.au

G'day I hope that I am not interrupting anything but I was browsing through on just this subject of the Amstrad PPC640 Portable. I was given one of these machines sometime ago and it has been standing in my garage for a couple of years. I had been buy on other projects and there was no power unit. Today I plugged it into the cigarette lighter socket of my 81 Volvo using the adaptor that was available. It worked first time, and requested Date and Time. Checking with the manual I inserted the System Disk and away she booted into DOS. I used to run an Amstrad 1640 ECD which was my first taste of computing back in the dark days of 1988. If you would like me to I will copy and forward the SYS disk PPC512 / 640 MSDOS V3.30, which apart >from the Main Op sys also has a programme on it called PPC ORGANISER. This has a Word Processor / Data Filing / Diary and Calculator. I also found that this computer has a PC200 Modem inbuilt which uses a programme called MIRROR 2. Speeds of 75 to 2400 bps are quoted using V21, V22, V22bis and V23 modes. Unfortunately I do not have the driver disk for the modem. Anyway should you require any further Info Please contact me. Dave Lott, Eden NSW Australia

23 years, 1 month

VAX/VMS reference material

by eusty＠galaxycorp.com

Hi Justin, I'm interested in your VAX/VMS ref. material; please contact me off list at eusty(a)galaxycorp.com if they are still available, thanks Vincent

23 years, 1 month

Hi!/ Sharing the technology/ LK401/ Thanks!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 31, 5:04, Justin wrote: > Now I'm working on getting my VAXstation 3100 up and working. IT works > but my keyboard is shot. I have the LK201, which seems to have a matrix > fault. about 1/6 of the keys work. :-( I bought a LK401 on ebay and the > person said it had the right connector when I asked. I waited too long > after I got it and found out it didn't in fact have the right connector. > > Does anyone know about these? my VAX Station takes the 4 element RJ11 for > which I have the pinout from the netbsd archive. The LK401 I have though > has a 6 pin (5 of those are connected) minidin. ( I think its a minidin > anyway ). Oops. Sounds like you have an LK450, LK461 or LK471, not an LK401. LK401 uses a DEC protocol, the others are PS/2-style keyboards. They're not interchangeable, I'm afraid. There should be a label on the underside, with three barcodes, the top barcode being the model number. Does it say LK401, or something a little different? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 1 month

Unibus UDA50 pinout, qbus RL02

by felten＠vaxnet.de

Hi, Does someone have the pinout for a UDA50 ? I have the two-board-set M7485-YA and M7486 but I don't have the cables >from the controller and no bulkhead. I'd like to connect a single RA80 and I know about the "uneven number of cables"-rule. Currently the RA80 has two cables connected to the cabinet (mini bulkhead?), from there's another cable haning loose. Can I make a cable that fits onto this cable and the UDA50 ? What kind of coaxial cable should I use ? Anything else I should know or check before powering up the drive ? Another topic: M8061 (qbus, RLV12 for RL02) Something strage is happening when I try to boot from or access my RL02.... Configuration: PDP 11/83, 4mb ram M8061 and one RL02 (drive0), terminator When I boot the RL02, the run light simply goes off. No error message, nothing. the clock signal from the controller should be there, because i can load the disk, the drive spins up and the Ready "0" light goes on. When booting 2.11BSD (from RD54) the same thing happens: the run light goes off, again no error message. The loaded diskpack contains afaik no usefull information. Trying another diskpack didn't change anything. The controller is jumpered as described in the RLV Users Guide and set for Q22 operation. The drive & cable are ok, because I can hang it on my 11/44 and boot RSX11M from another diskpack with it. Thanks, lothar.

23 years, 1 month

Hi!/ Sharing the technology/ LK401/ Thanks!

by justin＠ingrid.raspberrytea.com

Hi guys. I stumbled upon your list while looking for LK401 schematics, and found that this is the kind of list I was looking for. My name is Justin, and I like classic computers. We have an interesting community of technology enthusiasts who hang out at a local coffee shop here in Houston, TX called Kaveh Kanes. For a while now I have been trying to get rid of a lot of my old computers, because I didn't really want to spend more time on them, but it was hard to part with them. So rather than toss them, I've been getting them functional and setting them up as internet terminals at the coffee shop. A friend, Barrett put his Intel FreeBSD machine up there to start. Now I have my SparcSTATION 5 exporting an X session from it so people can get on the web. Now I'm working on getting my VAXstation 3100 up and working. IT works but my keyboard is shot. I have the LK201, which seems to have a matrix fault. about 1/6 of the keys work. :-( I bought a LK401 on ebay and the person said it had the right connector when I asked. I waited too long after I got it and found out it didn't in fact have the right connector. Does anyone know about these? my VAX Station takes the 4 element RJ11 for which I have the pinout from the netbsd archive. The LK401 I have though has a 6 pin (5 of those are connected) minidin. ( I think its a minidin anyway ). It looks very similar inside, but I don't know what I can connect and I'm having trouble finding documentation for it. Well that was a windy introduction, but it tells you a little about myself, and what I'm trying to do. I just want to share old technology with people in a way that they can still use and appreciate it at the coffee shop. Incidently, I have the complete reference to VAX/VMS in 3 ring binders. I think its about 17 binders total. If anyone is interested, I'd be OK with parting with it. IT would be heavy to ship though. 70 lbs? Next on the list after the VAX is my Amiga 2000. It needs a 68020 processor card first before it can run either AmigaOS 3.9 or NetBSD.... -Justin

23 years, 1 month

WWII fire control 'computers'

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

> Suggest you head over to usenet and ask on uk.rec.subterranea - the > folks there are experts on most things concering British bunkers... Sure - I've actually been out exploring with quite a few of the people who hang out on that group! Generally they tend to be keen in the sites for the exploration value though, but are less interested in how the sites actually operated. After 60 years or so most of that knowledge has been forgotten, and much of the printed material of the time has been destroyed. Having a machine and getting it working again would be one thing. Trying to find details on something that was melted down at least 40 years ago is easier said than done! :-) cheers & have a good New Year's, Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 1 month

DEC 3000 300X/300

by fire＠dls.net

Jochen writes > Why? You need pairs of 8 MB or 32 MB FPM parity 72 pin SIMMs. > Not that uncommon. Thanks for the useful information about the memory. I have already managed to locate 1 pair of SIMMs on Ebay. I will continue until maxed out. >> Now I look at the back of the machine and my main >> question is what cable do I need to hook up my VT220, or my VT420, Jochen replies > Any regular "null-modem" cable should do the job. I see how to hook up vt220 with db25 f-f null modem cable, but how does that get vt420 hooked up? It appears to have some kind of RJ connecton in back, not DB style. Is there a special cable for that? > >> or what >> model monitor with keyboard and mouse is this thing supposed to work with? > You need a LK201 or LK401 keyboard and a VSxxx mouse. The same keyboard > (and mouse) as used on the VT[234]xx terminals and the VAXstations. > Where do they hook up to? I see on ebay cables with db15 end and 3 bnc, keyboard and mouse at the other end. I hook this into back of DEC 3000 where it has tablet port? or do I need two separate cables, one for monitor from 3w3 connector and one from tablet port for keyboard and mouse? >> In a typical DEC fashion, in the manual they do not mention model numbers of >> monitor to go with it, > The video timings for the on board Smart Frame Buffer are: > 1024 x 786 @ 72 Hz for the 300L > 1280 x 1024 @ 72 Hz for the 300, 300X, 300LX > Any sync on green capable multisync monitor can be used. You just need > a 3W3 video cable. I have plenty of monitors, but not quite sure what you are saying. Say I have monitor with 13w3 connector on back, then I need 3w3 to 13w3 cable and monitor is set? Where do keyboard and mouse come into picture? Special cable plugging into tablet port (DB15) in back of DEC 3000? Sorry for so many questions, but I do not know too much about these machines (as if that is not obvious). Still I hope to soon have OpenVMS or Linux running on them. Bradley

23 years, 1 month

Another Decmate III available

by trestivo＠concentric.net

Hi all, Happy New Year! Just wanted you all to know the first two Decmate III's have sold on Ebay, and A third one has been posted. These systems are pretty cool! Word processing software comes with it so it works right out of the box. Take a look at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2085176520 There's also a brand new DEC mouse posted at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2085185434 Have a great holiday! thom

23 years, 1 month

Jupiter Ace repair update

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi, A little more news on the Ace repair front - I've pulled up the LS367s and found a load of tracks that were ripped up during resoldering - about half of these have now been repaired. It looks like the surge went straight through data line D3 - I've put the ROMs in my EPROM programmer and checked them against the ROM images Lee Davison sent me and they don't match at all. In every case, the output value is off by 0x04 - meaning data line D2 is probably cooked... I'm also beginning to suspect the video shift register - something isn't right. Address decoding is fine, the RAMs should have survived being de-soldered and re-soldered (IME they usually do) and I can't find any problems with the video timing chain (I assume the fact that I'm getting a video signal on my TV is good enough proof of this). It looks like the PCB was laid out with the main CPU section on the left and the video section on the right with a set of LS367s splitting them up. This is not as cheap a design as the ZX81 (IMO), but the PCB is complete and utter crap - the tin plating is stripping off all over the place, solder resist is cracking and has got thin, raised strips running along its length, kinda like the veins on a tree leaf. I've bodged a pair of 2732 ROMs I had in my junk box to fit the sockets and pinout. The video is reasonably stable, but it's mostly white. I haven't got any idea why the font RAM and video RAM aren't being loaded, though. Now if only Farnell still stocked 2532s and 2114s... Thankfully the buffers seem to have isolated a lot of circuitry in the video circuitry, especially the timing chain. The only possible fault condition I can think of is that Jupiter Cantab designed the Ace around National Semiconductor/Motorola/TI 74LS logic and the newer Fairchild Semi logic devices I'm using are incompatible with the existing logic... Stranger and stranger... Later. -- Phil. philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/

23 years, 1 month

Hi!/ Sharing the technology/ LK401/ Thanks! (fwd)

by justin＠ingrid.raspberrytea.com

23 years, 1 month

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test-drb December 2002