test-drb August 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

227 participants
528 discussions

[cctalk] Anyone care to guess what this is? Is it a computer even?

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Hello everybody! Jaywest wrote: > I mentioned this on the list a long time ago - found it at a salvage place. > I wasn't in any rush to get pictures, but last time I was there they said > the place was going to be declared off-limits for humans. So I got a few > pictures of this olive drab "computer". Anyone have any clue what this thing > is? Just curious!? If anyone wants it I could put them in touch with the > salvage place owner. > > Pictures are at www.ezwind.net/jwest/whatsit Haven't even looked at the pictures yet (I'm doing mail offline when all I got is a modem line), but: *Somebody Please Save This!* (I can't, as it's across the pond and shipping would be a killer if it can't be included into a bigger load that goes to Europe anyway!) Such control equipment and the like are one of the places where robotics and the modern "embedded system" concept started off! I own a Siemens Sinumerik unit (actually, a rebadged Fujitsu Fanuc mate TG) >from the early 1970s. It's nonfunctional now because the monitor box (which contains the character and vector generator board for the graphics too - abso-f***ing-lutely proprietary) is missing. I had that here once, but it was trashed before I came to realize I wanted to save the whole thing. I also have a lead on a Sinumerik 810 which is supposed to become available sometime soon. I got some demo, lessons and simulation practice on (C)NC programming two years ago as a part of the practical introduction in industry for EE students. Great fun to watch a huge powerful tooling machine execute commands that one enters on a computer, serial terminal or via paper tape! Yours sincerely, Arno Kletzander Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen --- www.iser.uni-erlangen.de

21 years, 1 month

Another disk imaging project

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

I have a parallel port version of the Databook ThinCardDRIVE, model TMD-500. This is an external PCMCIA drive for reading SRAM cards. IIRC, it does not read flash cards. The manual is copyright 1991 and specifically mentions using SRAM cards in the HP 95LX and Poqet. It was a white-box unit that I got on eBay about 4 years ago. At the time, they were listed fairly often. I heard that they had been surplussed by NASA in Alabama. Databook was aquired by another company, which does not offer support for these units. I did email them and got instructions for using the unit with Windows, but it does not always work correctly in Windows 95. I also have an internal PCMCIA reader, but I have to dig it out to get its specs. Jim, email me off-list at r(underscore)a(underscore)feldman(at)hotmail.com. I don't need both units. Bob Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:04:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: Another disk imaging project To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <20050815174715.O62263 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > >>>There are ISA adapters for PCMCIA. There are adapters to plug CF into > >>>PCMCIA dlots. > > There are, or at least WERE, 8 bit ISA PCMCIA adapters. On Mon, 15 Aug 2005, Jim Leonard wrote: >Recall any? I'm really looking for something like this. I YOUSTA have an 8 bit ISA card with a PCMCIA slot on the back. There was also an ISA card with a cable to a PCMCIA slot in a holder that mounted in place of a 3.5" drive. ISTR the name as being something like "DataBook Thin Card Drive". The machine that it's in is not very conveniently accessible, but I might be able to get at it in a few weeks. If so, I'll dig it out, and confirm what it is. <snip> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

21 years, 1 month

QuantumLink pics

by GFisher＠tristonecapital.com

>Message: 30 >Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:38:27 -0500 >From: Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> >Subject: Re: QuantumLink pics >To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Message-ID: <43055433.1070106 at jbrain.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > >> >>Great work Jim! I always wanted to know what Qlink looked like. I used Compuserve at the time and it's interface was pretty basic. >> >> Now what would be really fun would be to patch Qlink to work with the MMC-64 or Retro Replay with an RR-net card and go through the internet! Has anybody ever tried it? >> >> > >Not yet. Putting a whole TCP/IP stack in the machine might be a bit >much, but I'll not say it's impossible. Note though that we did go >through the Internet (albeit via a slave PC COM port). > >Jim > >-- >Jim Brain, Brain Innovations >brain at jbrain.com http://www.jbrain.com >Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Jim, Thanks for the hint about the PC serial, I went on to Jeff Ledger's site http://www.petscii.com/ and learned lots more about your work. Looking forward to getting it going with my rig. Gary Fisher Vice President, Auction Tristone Capital Inc. Suite 1800, 335 - 8th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2P 1C9 B: 403.303.8657 F: 403.294.9543 E:gfisher at tristonecapital.com This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized and may be illegal. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the author and are not endorsed by the author's employer.

21 years, 1 month

DG Nova 2

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, there is a DG Nova 2 on eBay here in Germany. It is said to be non-functional but I'm still interested. Does anybody know about that system: - When has it been manufactured (Seller writes 1978 but I doubt)? - How is the state of available hardware docs? - Which kind of memory and logic families are used? - LSI or TTL? - Is that a cool computer? Anyx other information welcome, too... Thanks, Philipp :-)

21 years, 1 month

New POWER toys

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> There are some ass-kicking (for the time) video cards for the very early > RS/6000s that took up three slots (!). They were based on the early SGI 4D chip sets. It would run the SGI flight simulator (I had a set in the RS/6000 I used for early PPC Mac development)

21 years, 1 month

HP 7900 disk platter plays Spike Jones hit???

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

eBay Item number 5230383368 From the auction description: WHEN INSTALLED IN DISK DRIVE PLAYS A SPIKE JONES HIT WTF???? Any of you HP gurus care to 'splain this to me? Glen 0/0

21 years, 1 month

1/2" tape cleaner?

by brad＠heeltoe.com

Askley's plea for empty dectape reels made me think I should ask here... I'm looking to find a 1/2" tape cleaner. Anyone on the east coast have one they don't need? I'd also be curious to hear from Ashley (or others) how reading old DECtapes goes - do you ever have "sticktion" problems? or see stick-shed syndrom? (ah, I remember watching os/8 load off a dectape unit connected to an 8/i running tss/8... It had 4 8/l's slaved off it and 'served' the dectape drive up to which ever asked for it) -brad

21 years, 1 month

QuantumLink pics

by GFisher＠tristonecapital.com

>Message: 14 >Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 02:01:09 -0500 >From: Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> >Subject: QuantumLink pics >To: Classic Computer Talk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Message-ID: <43043235.1000404 at jbrain.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed >My apologies, but there are some pictures, if interested: >http://www.jbrain.com/vicug/gallery/qlink/ >Jim >-- >Jim Brain, Brain Innovations >brain at jbrain.com http://www.jbrain.com >Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Great work Jim! I always wanted to know what Qlink looked like. I used Compuserve at the time and it's interface was pretty basic. Now what would be really fun would be to patch Qlink to work with the MMC-64 or Retro Replay with an RR-net card and go through the internet! Has anybody ever tried it? Gary Fisher This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized and may be illegal. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the author and are not endorsed by the author's employer.

21 years, 1 month

to those who offered to help

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Thanks SO much for all those who offered to help gate posts from cctalk to cctech. I'm in the process of writing something up that gives instructions on how exactly to do what is needed. Then I'll send off the instructions to those who are in the right timezones across the globe :) Jay West

21 years, 1 month

1/2" tape cleaner?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

If I had a vacume column drive which floated the tape over the heads without contact I suspect this would not be a problem :-) -- Look at what John B. is doing at readtapes.com Normal heads apply several pounds of pressure from the tape to the head surface. By using magnetorestrictive heads, you can cut that to a few ounces. If you thing about how a normal head works, it closes the loop of an electromagnet with the oxide on the tape, so it REQUIRES physical contact to work.

21 years, 1 month

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test-drb August 2005