test-drb

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101090 discussions

by ethan＠757.org

Looking for an old midi sequencer called Voyetra Sequencer. The Gold version for DOS is all over the internet, which was a later version. I have a Yamaha C1 laptop now running after repairs, and from the demo disk another collector published I have the MIDI driver for Voyetra Sequencer Plus. But the driver I have from the demo disk is too old for the Gold version of the software. Looking for Voyetra Plus II or III. The increase in number matches the increase in allowed number of channels. Any leads appreciated. -- : Ethan O'Toole

6 years, 5 months

4K memory board

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I'm curious if anyone recognizes the system this board went to. Has an? E with a circle spot and a CM-8 badge on the carrier board. A core board on the carrier is probably a 4k board made by Standard Memories, Santa Ana, CA. I put up photos of the board on my toy blog. https://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2019/12/4k-or-8k-core-board.html

6 years, 5 months

First Internet message and ...

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com *Wrote:* *?More worrisome is that Murray is NOT A "NEWCOMER" who will be "scared off" * *by corrections of his facts! This is not the first time that he has * *needed to be admonished to be VERY specific about what was "FIRST" about * *something. He wrote about the exact same event three weeks ago, on the * *correct date, with much more accurate details, other than calling it "the * *first inter-computer communication". Not sure where he got the November * *21 date, nor the "SIXTY years ago" (probably a simple misteak)* *He is quite capable of some fairly good writing. I don't remember any * *prior time that he had to be reminded to "PICK A TOPIC!" rather than * *string together eight unrelated concepts into four sentences.* *On the other hand, if his confusion was recreational, that's OK, too.* *Let's have a toast with him to the people who got the idea to work, * *disunirregardless of who was "first".?* ********** * Things we historians talk about are ?firsts? and ?facts?. If we go to original source(s) maybe then we will get things right. I guess the best that can be said is we agree to disagree. A sad commentary in this age of what my ?facts? and your ?facts? are, are not the same but we historians should do our best to state ?firsts? and ?facts? are indeed that to the best of our knowledge. The 60 yrs. as noted was a math error and here I spent years as a BASIC, C and C++ programmer as isn?t mathematics the basis for all programming languages? Let's indeed toast to all micro-computing progenitors for making our hobby possible. I?ve been a hobbyist and experimenter since the 1970s though I worked on mini-computers(PDP-8/11) in the 1960s. I got to work on them in high school; I know we were rather privileged. For microcomputers it began in April 1978 when I built the Heathkit H8($2500 Cdn.) a computer based on the PDP-11 with 4K(B) of an 8K(B) card; now $2500 will buy a truly powerful home computer with 16/32GB of memory. My second, the Coleco ADAM, computer was Aug. 1984. A bit more powerful and more useful to be sure. Finally in 1989 I moved into the IBM PC world ? the Compaq Deskpro 386 which ran DOS, Lotus 1-2-3 and Windows 2 that could run Word and Excel. Wow! Notebooks followed. And now(well Aug. 2019 to be precise) I built my own custom Mini-ITX PC >from parts sourced here and there for $750 Cdn. This makes me nostalgic for the old days of computing we talk about on cctalk. Happy computing. Murray ?

6 years, 5 months

FS : Diablo 630 Print Wheels ( x4 )

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

Any Diablo 630 printer owners around ? You might be interested by : lot of 4 daisy wheels, one sligtly damaged ? $20 https://www.ebay.fr/itm/274154371418?ul_noapp=true Not affiliated??? etc .......

6 years, 5 months

Nixdorf computer AG boards rechner 154

by roelof_klaas＠yahoo.com

Hello everyone, I've got these Nixdorf boards since recently. Does anyone know to what kind of machine this belongs? The word "Kernspeicher" clearly points to magnetic core memory. And when I look to the amount of power transistors it seems to be 12 bit. I really wonder from what kind of machine these were. The boards date from early seventies... And I wonder if anyone could actually use them to repair such a machine. Regards, Roland Some pictures of the boards on VCFED: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?72836-Nixdorf-computer-AG-boards-…

6 years, 5 months

WTB: wire wrap tools

by joezatarski＠gmail.com

I'm looking to pick up a set of at least some hand tools for wire wrap, though I'm interested in wrap guns/bits as well. I'm specifically looking for hand tools for 26awg wire, as well as 22 and 24awg. I already have a hand tool for 30awg. Mainly interested in tools for .045" square posts rather than the .025" for those sizes of wire. These tools were commonly used for telephony wire wrap. I'm interested in those sizes for wrap guns as well, but additionally would be interested in 30awg/.025" post bits as well. I'm not entirely opposed to 26awg/.025" post, but that seems like a bit thick of wire for that size post, IMO. Feel free to contact me on or off list. Best Regards, Joe Zatarski

6 years, 5 months

RL02 head replacement, disk back online

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So after looking at the mess the mice had made of my third RL02 drive I decided it would probably be better to pull the heads and put them in my second drive (the one with the bad top head and plugged filter). Getting heads out was simple, and I decided to put them side to side with the heads in drive 2. The following images show some interesting details. https://i.imgur.com/tcmkUmO.jpg Note that O is original (the heads from drive 2) and the top heads are >from drive 3. First, the heads on the third drive were in pretty good shape and looked clean. Under the loupe though I could see some fragments of gunk that needed to be removed. More importantly I did a side view comparison between the bad top head in #2 and the top head in #3: https://i.imgur.com/D6HOxND.jpg This was a really tough picture to take, and you have to zoom in on the heads in the upper right. But what you can clearly see here is that the better head from #3 (left one) is pretty much rectangle shaped while the crashing head from #2 (right one) is shaped like a wedge, with the top part being narrower than the bottom. https://i.imgur.com/fEGuOFE.jpg And of course the filter removed from #2. Note the silicon sludge, I think this is 100% blocked (and was why the drive made a lot of air/wind noises when spun up, the fan was cavitating) This sums it up: I think what happened is the unit was run in a very dirty environment, the absolute air filter plugged up, and the heads don't fly as well without that blast of clean air coming in. So they dragged on the disk, and the ceramic rubbed off (and onto the packs) which led to the eventual disk damage. Moral: Change filters. I cleaned up the #3 heads, put the heads from #3 into unit #2, put the air filter from #3 into #2, and fired it up with the test pack. Goes to ready no problem, will do a full dir/bad with RT11 later this afternoon to see if I still have two errors on the pack. It is interesting to note that the bottom head from drive 2 didn't look too bad, and did not pick up any dirt/oxide from the disk after I replaced the filter. It was probably flying very close to the platter but had just enough airflow to make it fly. Still, I'll put it in the spares pile and think about it for awhile... Otherwise, back in business. I'll be checking the filter on #1 just to be on the safe side. It was my RL02 drive from 30 years ago and was not one of the Solarex ones. Then I'll put fixing this third RL02 on the calendar (will need new wiring, long ribbon cable, filter, heads, and a massive clean-up inside), and start working on restoring my darn RSX11M 4.2 disk packs...

6 years, 5 months

VAXmate Technical Reference Manual Volume 2

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a POST error on my VAXmate, which I think is related to the hard disk. I get error codes 81 or 82 depending on whether my MFM emulator is running or not. I suspect the hard disk controller itself may be faulty, because I don't see much activity on the MFM emulator itself (it is the David Gesswein one). >From the table of contents in Volume 1 of the Technical Reference Manual it looks like the error codes might be in Volume 2. Only Volume 1 appears to be available online, does anyone have Volume 2, ideally scanned, or failing that, who can tell me what those codes mean? Thanks Rob

6 years, 5 months

Looking at a Youtube video

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

It is called The History of the Personal Computer part 2 He goes to the Xerox building to find the first graphic interface. He walks around and then stops an puts his hand on a Dioblo 30 hard disk drive. I think he might have missed something. Dwight

6 years, 5 months

RL02 repair, thoughts on storage

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So I got the third RL02 out of the shed this afternoon and after cleaning the outside I brought it in to disassemble and check out. Being in an outdoor shed for 15 years is not good for technology, I could see debris behind the front panel and just knew that mice had gotten into the unit. The question is how far... Taking it apart gave me some clues. On the positive side there was no infestations or dirt/debris/anything past the absolute air filter. As a bonus, the filter was very clean and there was no debris past the motor air impeller. This is good, and it gives me a clean air filter with which to test the other drive to see if the heads will fly (my other drive had a 100% clogged filter. I need to take some pics) Bad news is I can see mouse debris down the four tubes on the intake. It looks like they made a little house under the power supply, which is where the intake is to the high pressure air system. So I think I'm going to be pulling the whole AC/DC power supply out and do a major cleaning.... Hopefully they did not chew the wires. Never dull.

6 years, 5 months

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