test-drb October 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

196 participants
268 discussions

by francois.dion＠gmail.com

Anybody has or know of a dn1000 for sale or in search of a good home for their dn1000? I'm in North Carolina. Fran?ois -- solarisdesktop.blogspot.com - raspberry-python.blogspot.com

13 years

Diagnosing and Reparing Commodore 64s

by ark72axow＠msn.com

Hello everyone, I was hoping for some definite direction in my endless quest to fix my C64. I don't have a lot of free time to work on this. So it is ongoing in many ways. Plus I am cautious about doing things that I know little about. Which can be good especially when you get people that give you conflicting advice. I do find a lot of helpful people on IRC, but you have to sort out what they are all telling you. I won't want to go and start buying all sorts of stuff and equipment without knowing why or then finding that I should have bought Y, when I bought X. I know a little. Bits and pieces here and there, but nothing that will give me confidence to just dive in. This is my quest to learn how to repair my C64: I started with my original C64 which I bought in 1987. I had left it in a garage for two years and then tried to use it and it didn't work. First I was told that I should clean my C64 with regular dish detergent and a hair dryer. I was told that this would solve many problems. Sounds unsafe, but I guess I will try it. Then I was told that I should buy another C64 since it isn't worth repairing them, since they are so plentifully available and cheap. So now I have many non-working ones. Then I need to replace chips that are bad, so I need to know how to solder and de-solder. Which kind of device to get ? There are different wattages and if you do it wrong then you burn up your boards (as a friend of mine did with more soldering experience did). Do I get a combination desolder sucker ? Or a little squeeze one ? Or a push and suck stick ? Do I get a soldering station ? A braider ? Too many different choices and combinations. I prefer something that will work and not damage my boards, and for desoldering, something that won't give me repetitive stress injury. Then I'm told to get a diagnostic cartridge for C64, which works well expect when the PLA chip is bad and there you can't see video. Then I should get a diagnostic harness, which works better, but again you need video. Then I find a Diagnose 64 cartridge which tells you which chips are bad very simply with LED lights, but they are hard to find. I'm borrowing one right now from a friend and figuring out how to use now. Then I'm told to get a multimeter, how do I use ? Which one to get ? I get one, then I'm told there is a better that could have been gotten for a little more money. Then I'm told to get a logic probe. Which one ? Again, how to use ? Then I'm told a logic probe is not as good as an oscilloscope. Which one ? How to use ? Then I'm told that I don't need an oscilloscope. Then I'm told to go to Ray Carlsen's site and that will have everything I need. http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm.html. Which is very nice, but I'm a beginner and I don't need just a bunch of schematics and reference material. I need step by step method which explains which tools, techniques etc. that I need to do. Then I'm told that going to the Rob Clarke and Bil Herd workshop would give me everything that I need to know. It is good information, but not hands on. Jeff B

13 years

OT fitting diverse lenses to ccd/cmos camera elements

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

I have a perfectly nice Nikon 12mpix, so its not on account of being cheap, though I am, and proud, and cheap people are the SOTE. But if I were interested in salvaging a smallish zoom lense and fitting it to this godawful Vivitar, just for fun, it came with with what I think is called a barrel lense, which is threaded, what specs can I presume to be suitable?

13 years

RISC OS laptop

by francois.dion＠gmail.com

What do you guys think of my RISC OS ARM laptop? http://raspberry-python.blogspot.com/2012/10/risc-laptop.html Battery powered ARM 1080p fun. :) Fran?ois -- solarisdesktop.blogspot.com - raspberry-python.blogspot.com

13 years

film cameras was Re: Blue screen of Basic

by jonas＠otter.se

At 4:55 PM -0700 10/28/12, Chris Tofu wrote: >> >I know Im in for it asking such a question, but are there any >> >realistic benefits to film these days considering the expense? >> >Personally the best film camera Ive ever used was a Polaroid. Benefits? The whole process, the slowness and mediativeness of the process compared to digital, the feel of seeing the negatives, the relaxation of developing the film and making prints, ... Are there any realistic benefits to watercolours or oil paints these days, compared to Adobe Creative Suite or whatever, considering the expense? Why mess around with old, slow, limited classic computers, when a laptop for a few hundred $ will do a thousand times more work, easier and better?

13 years

networking classic hardware

by tom_a_sparks＠yahoo.com.au

I am thinking of networking a group of classic computers and printers computers: (only listed ones without Ethernet port) A500 A1200 Mircobee premium plus (classic mircobee software dose not support Ethernet) printers: pen plotter dot matrix (two lost in the QLD flood 2010-2011, looking for another) daisy wheel (have not got one yet) I know about the UDS10[1a] I also know about these parallel printer servers[1b], I contact d-link a few years ago about an earlier version and the support staff told me about irrelevant GDI printer issues I am looking at running a linux server within the classic system network Are there other options? [1a] <http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/external-device-servers/uds1100.…> [1b] <http://www.dlink.co.in/products/?pid=76> --- tom_a_sparks "It's a nerdy thing I like to do" Please use ISO approved file formats excluding Office Open XML - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html Ubuntu wiki page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/tomsparks 3 x (x)Ubuntu 10.04, Amiga A1200 WB 3.1, UAE AF 2006 Premium Edition, AF 2012 Plus Edition, Sam440 AOS 4.1.2, Roland DXY-1300 pen plotter, Cutok DC330 cutter/pen plotter Wanted: RiscOS system, GEOS system (C64/C128), Atari ST, Apple Macintosh (6502/68k/PPC only)

13 years

RISC OS for Raspberry Pi released

by francois.dion＠gmail.com

On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 11:31 AM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 8:10 AM -0700 10/29/12, Cameron Kaiser wrote: >> >> I just downloaded it for my own Rpi. Always wanted a RISC OS box, but >> Archies are hard to come by in the USA. > > > I've always wanted one as well as RISC OS sounds interesting, so this might > actually convince me to purchase a Raspberry Pi! Unfortunately the > riscosopen site seems to be down at the moment. Here is my page on it, with links to the download link of the image. The official site is down, been down since yesterday it looks like. http://raspberry-python.blogspot.com/2012/10/risc-os.html It is in spanish, but the links are there (plus a google translate dropdown on the right). Plus the dd command to make the SD card. Well, obviously you'll have to adjust the of= based on your device. Last link at the bottom is to the programmer's documentation and the basic documentation and stuff like that. And some screenshots of the box booting. You dont even have time to count to 10 that the desktop is ready to use, not overclocked (700MHz, can run at 1GHz) and with a slow 2GB card. I'll put a sandisk extreme in next. Fran?ois -- solarisdesktop.blogspot.com - raspberry-python.blogspot.com

13 years

Copy Protection (Was: anyone with an early Option Board?

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

everytime you formatted a disk it would knock the heads to insure it was placed at track zero. ------------------------------ On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 11:35 AM PDT geneb wrote: >On Mon, 29 Oct 2012, Fred Cisin wrote: > >> some of the copy protection could actually damage your equipment over >> time. >> THAT calls for more detail. >> >Some copy protection methods on the Commodore 1541 drive knocked the head repeatedly against a hard stop - over time this would knock the head out of alignment. > >g. > >-- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 >http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. >http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. >Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. > >ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment >A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. >http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!

13 years

Blue screen of Basic

by francois.dion＠gmail.com

On the last guessing thread (it lives! about the CES apple clone), William said: "Make it PRINT "HELLO" and then GOTO 10 for me one more time, won't you please?" And the C64 fans were also left in want, so I present to you the Blue Screen Of Basic: http://raspberry-python.blogspot.com/2012/10/blue-screen-of-basic.html I'm sure quite a few people already know what it is... The follow up post wont be a clue but simply a detailed post on this modern retro computer. Fran?ois -- solarisdesktop.blogspot.com - raspberry-python.blogspot.com

13 years

Anyone Used UKOneStopPCShop on eBay?

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

There is a UK seller on eBay called ukonestoppcshop ( http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/ukonestoppcshop?_trksid=p2047675.l2559) which sells loads of old DEC gear as "Dell Refurbished". I want to ask them a question or two but eBay won't let me ask because "due to the high number of emails this seller receives, they aren't able to respond to your specific question right now". I want to ask them what Dell has got to do with it, what refurbishment they do, and a few questions on the specific items I am interested in. The feedback seems mostly good, but not universally so. Has anyone on this list used this seller? Regards Rob

13 years

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test-drb October 2012