On 14-Apr-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote:
>When I first broached the idea of making my palmtop talk to a PC JR keyboard,
>someone on this list mentioned they knew where to find the keyboard codes the
>Peanut keyboard generates. Since I've had no luck finding this data in web
>searches, could that someone please let me know where to find this info?
Jim,
What are you referring to as a 'peanut' keyboard? The only PC Jr. keyboard
I've seen in use, and I have one here though no PC Jr., is the one that has
the two IR leds on the rear, an RJ-11 type jack, and a space for 4 'AA'
batteries. How many different keyboard types were there for the Jr.?
Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from an Amiga 3000..the computer for the creative mind!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, IBM 5155,
Kayro 2X, Osbourne Executive, Radofin Aquarius, Sinclair ZX-81,
TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a
TRS-80 Model 4. Plus Atari Superpong and 2600VCS game consoles.
> When I first broached the idea of making my palmtop talk to a PC JR keyboard,
> someone on this list mentioned they knew where to find the keyboard codes the
> Peanut keyboard generates. Since I've had no luck finding this data in web
> searches, could that someone please let me know where to find this info?
>
> -Jim
> --
I've got a program that comes with NCSA Telnet called SCANCHEK
so one can check the scan codes of their keyboard.
I've had to use it a few times to get some programs to recognize
my Tandy 1000's F11 & F12 keys which are different from IBM's.
If you don't find the info I can send it to you or you can download
all of NCSA Telnet from SimTel.
Marc
--
>> ANIME SENSHI <<
Marc D. Williams
marcw(a)lightside.com (finger at: marcw(a)mail.lightside.com)
marc.williams(a)mb.fidonet.org
On Fri, 11 Apr 1997 14:58:15 +0100, Kevan is rumoured to have said:
> [On Fri, 11 Apr 1997 01:24:34, PEC wrote:]
> > Is this a generational thing? My first computer exposure what to a
> > mainframe in the late 70's, but my first computer was an 80's micro.
> > Are people in the 40+ age group more likely to have fond memories
> > of minis?
>
> I think there will be a strong corrolation here.
Oh come on, guys. I'm not _that_ old :-) (36).
One of the reasons that I cherish the minicomputer architectures is,
admittedly, nostalgia, but the other reasons include the fact that
they're very servicable (frequently with off-the-shelf components) and
they provide a wonder tactile sense of the essence of computing. Few
things compare to hand-assembling programs, entering them in binary
via a front panel, and having them work. Also, the average minicomputer
is simple enough to understand its' inner workings at a gate level;
this makes minis admirable teaching tools.
> I started my computing on my older brothers ZX80, I was 13 at the
> time. Thus I was brought up on the home computer boom of the early
> eighties.
I was a bit of a "late bloomer" when it comes to computing. I was
always interested in the machines, all the way from early childhood,
and was lucky enough to have relatives with contacts at MIT and
Harvard. I got to see some wonderful stuff then (even played Space-
war on Harvard's PDP-1!) but never got to do any programming until
my second year of secondary school in the late '70s. The first
machine I programmed on was the Nova 840 I have in my collection
now. The machine I "cut teeth" on in a hardware sense was an Inter-
data Model 3, in my third year of ss.
Although I bought a VIC-20 (for the princely sum of (US)$300) in
1980 (?), I never really "took to" the micro- architectures (it
might also have been that they were so _slow_ compared to the PDP-
10s I was working on at the time). I think I still have the VIC
around someplace.
Cheers.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum/ | ICBM: N42:21 W71:46 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
> >Is everyone else in their 20's and 30's? Anyone seriously outside of=20
> >this range?
> >
> >--pec
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> --
> >
> I'm outside that range, and I am serious!
> _______________
>
> Barry Peterson bm_pete(a)ix.netcom.com
> Husband to Diane, Father to Doug,
> Grandfather to Zoe now and to Tegan at 10:23 a.m. on April 13th!!!
> (7lbs. 2oz., 19", lots of dark hair, and HEALTHY!)
I've been watching that .sig for a while now. Congratulations!
On topic: Well, I'm outside of that range too, but on the other end.
--
Ben Coakley coakley(a)ac.grin.edu
530 User anonymous access denied.
http://www.math.grin.edu/~coakley/classic for my classic game page!
Well, today was a rather good day out at the swap meet, my first
excursion in a couple years.
It started out slow. The first thing I found was one lowly Atari 2600
PacMan cart sitting amidst some guy's junk. For some reason I thought I
would buy it (?) thinking maybe I didn't already have PacMan (whatever)
and it went like this:
Me: How about a quarter?
Him: 1 dollar.
Me: A quarter?
Him: 1 dollar.
Me: How about 50 cents?
Him: ok.
Anyway, it got way better. Walking along I found a beautiful little
TimexSinclair 1000! At least I'm am darned sure it is, because the label
is missing on the top but the bottom has a stamp which has
"CEC8E4TS1000R1" in it. There is also a sticker with a serial number and
"Model M330" on it. Anyway, I've never actually seen one, but have been
looking for one for years! And finally its mine! MINE! Haven't tested
it yet but I'm sure it works. Its in good condition. Could someone who
has one describe theirs so I can figure out exactly what I have? I know
there were different varieties of the TS1000. Mine has an Ear and Mic
jack on the side. What the hell are those for? Oh, duh, just figured it
out...data recorder. Never mind. You know how hard it is to find a 9V
DC power source with a 1/8" headphone jack? I looked all over the meet
for one, finally found one but the seller wanted three bucks for it so I
passed. I can't encourage that kind of larceny :)
So continuing on I found some more Atari 2600 carts I didn't have, and
then I found an original IBM PC/XT. The guy wanted $50 but I promptly
talked him down to $7. What a steal. Haven't tested it yet but it
"looks" like it will work :) Now I want the Original IBM PC and a PC
Jr. The funny thing is, I paid more for 9 Atari 2600 games ($11 in one
case) than an entire PC.
So moving forward, I found someone selling a Macintosh 512K. Cool, I'd
been wanting to add a classic Mac to my collection for some time. But
this one was missing the keyboard and mouse. They only wanted $20 for
it. I tried talking them down but they didn't want to move. Later I
found someone selling a complete Mac+. Now this one I know was hot. At
first they wanted $50 but I talked them down to $15 (I used the "It's all
the money I have right now" ruse, except in this case it was true). I
really wanted to get the other Mac, because it was closer to the original
Macintosh, but this one was more complete, so I got it instead.
Now, I don't want to disparage the fine folks of Oakland, California, but
as I said before, I'm most positive this system was hot. They were too
willing to dump off a perfectly good Macintosh (at least I think its
perfectly good, haven't tested it yet) for too little money. Later on
when I was going through the software I got with it I found some BMUG
disks (BMUG = BayArea Macintosh User's Group). So I'll be contacting BMUG
to see if any of their members "lost" a macintosh within the last couple
months, and if I find a match I'll sell it back to them for what I paid.
(I'm such a nice guy, eh!?)
Throughout the day I saw a LOT of Nintendo consoles, carthridges and
accessories (not classic enough yet). I'm sure in 5-10 years when I
inevitably start collecting Nintendo crap I'll be wishing I had picked up a
lot of this stuff. Oh well, maybe when I have enough money to buy all
the truly classic stuff I want and THEN some cash left over for the common
tripe, I'll start collecting nintendo.
So anyway, at the end of the day I ended up with an IBM PC/XT (original),
a MacintoshPlus, a TimexSinclair 1000 (yeah!) and about 25 more atari
2600 carts, plus an intellivision cart and a TI/994a cart.
Total bill: $45.
Not bad. And I'm still under my budget of $100 per month for classic
computer collecting (I just implemented that budget, but I think it may
be too high. I tend to get carried away when collecting old computer
stuff and, if left unchecked, would buy everything I came across. As it
is I just may go back for that Mac512K.) Now I just need to keep my new
booty hidden from my fiance.
If I can offer any tip to would-be flea market bargain hunters: haggle.
Start way low and work up. Some people don't even know what they're
selling, and think just because it's a computer (computer = high tech) it
must be worth big bucks. You have to slap them around a bit until they
come to their senses. No common system console (ie. Vic20s, Atari 2600s,
etc) should go for more than $10 ($15 at the VERY most). No game
carthridge should go for more than $.50 (IMO, unless you REALLY want it,
then NO more than $2.00 each).
What do you all think?
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
On 13-Apr-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote:
>The PSU is very similar electrically (although I think it's 114W, not
>135W, or something). Mechanically it's very different.
That's certainly not much to be running everything including the monitor
off of. One would think that with the addition of that CRT that they'd have
upped the power a little.
>It's worth doing - 41256's are trivial to obtain (off old 286 memory
>boards if nothing else!), and it takes about 5 minutes. I did it to my
>portable the day I got it...
What about the other chip you said needed to be put in...how hard is it to
locate? It doesn't sound like the process would be terribly hard.
>No idea, I'm afraid. Does CP/M 86 run on an XT? (I beleive a few things
>wouldn't) - the portable is really an XT (and not a PC) system.
I've since learned that no, CP/M-86 will not run on an XT! Which is too
bad considering I have the full packages of both it and Concurrent CP/M
sitting here and the 5155 is the only machine that's even close to what's
needed to use it. Oh well!
Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from an Amiga 3000..the computer for the creative mind!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, IBM 5155,
Kayro 2X, Osbourne Executive, Radofin Aquarius, Sinclair ZX-81,
TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a
TRS-80 Model 4. Plus Atari Superpong and 2600VCS game consoles.
On 11-Apr-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote:
>In case you've not spotted it, most of that machine is built from standard
>IBM parts.
Yes, I had noticed that it appeared to be made out of standard looking
parts, though the PSU was different than the XT's, as I have an extra XT PSU
here I was keeping around just in case I ever had a project, such as external
drives or such, that needed one. I had forgotten how much the very early XT
keyboards left to be desired though!
>If you want 640K without wasting a slot, here's what to do :
Thanks for the info on the MOD! It likely won't be done anytime soon, but
it's a good thing to know about. About the only thing I plan on doing right
away is adding a serial port to it.
Since you seem rather knowledgable of the system, do you know why it won't
boot into CP/M-86 ver 1.1, but continues into the BASIC ROM after it checks
the drive?
Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com
--
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// Amiga: Today's Technology Ten Years Ago
// -------------------------------------------------------
\// True 32bit pre-emptive multitasking GUI, plug&play hardware,
\/ stereo sound, and 4096 color video modes since day #1
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, Kaypro 2X,
Mattel Aquarius, Osbourne Executive, Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A,
Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a TRS-80 Model 4.
Plus Atari SuperPong and Atari 2600VCS game consoles.
Hi all.
I'm pleased to report that the Xerox 16/8 system I offered for adoption
here, has started its lengthy journey to it's new home in North Carolina,
and the Kaypro Service manual is on its way to Oregon.
Now its my turn to ask for help.
Some time ago, at our local Thrift store, I bought two Hewlett-Packard HP125
Display units. They contain the monitor and CPU for these CP/M units and I
have a good collection of suitable peripheral drive units.
I only paid $2:50 each for the Display units. And they seem to work OK but I
really can't be sure until I get keyboards.
I also have a set of boot disks for them.
But I have no keyboards.
I understand the same keyboard was used with the H-P 26xx series of Terminals.
Does anyone have one or two suitable keyboards they'd be willing to sell to me?
My e-mail address is listed below.
Thanks and cheers,
David Cobley.
Fidonet on the ADAM, CP/M Tech
and Hewlett-Packard Echoes.
Internet-dcobley(a)island.net, or,
davidc(a)macn.bc.ca
On 14-Apr-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote:
> The "Chicklet" style keyboard (my friend had a PCjr with one) are very
>rare, as IBM quickly realized its mistake in actually making that type of
>keyboard (and was one of the worse keyboards (for touch typists) ever made
>by IBM) and came out with the new style keyboards.
Thanks for the info. The one I have appears to be the 'chicklet' one. Now
I just have to get a PCjr to go along with it!
Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from an Amiga 3000..the computer for the creative mind!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, IBM 5155,
Kayro 2X, Osbourne Executive, Radofin Aquarius, Sinclair ZX-81,
TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a
TRS-80 Model 4. Plus Atari Superpong and 2600VCS game consoles.
Sam,
The transformer with my TS-1000 shows an input (to the computer) of 9.75V
DC. Both my TS-1000 and Sinclair ZX-81 seem to be picky about TV's and the
shielding of the cable. As for identifying marks, from your previous post,
the only thing my TS-1000 has on it is the FCC ID# CEC8E4TS1000R1. Otherwise,
there's no mention of the number you mentioned...just the sticker on the top
'Timex-Sinclair 1000'. The box and such doesn't give any indications to other
identifiers either.
Hope this is of some help.
Jeff Jeffh(a)eleventh.com
P.S. the Aquarius went out to you today UPS
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from an Amiga 3000..the computer for the creative mind!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128 & C128D, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, IBM 5155,
Kayro 2X, Osbourne Executive, Radofin Aquarius, Sinclair ZX-81,
TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a
TRS-80 Model 4. Plus Atari Superpong and 2600VCS game consoles.
