test-drb

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101090 discussions

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Anyone have one of these single board embedded computers in use? I have one that is unresponsive and I believe I need to replace the Dallas battery chip, similar to other computers like the SunSparc 10 that does nothing without a working NVRAM battery chip installed. Any opinions/experience with this card out there? I have already ordered a new battery but while I wait I'd like to throw this one out there. Its from the later 90's not yet "vintage" so that's why the header semi OT. http://www.voxtechnologies.com/SBCs/pdf/icp/rocky-518hv-ver4-0.pdf Bill

8 years, 8 months

Foxboro drum indicator panel

by steven＠malikoff.com

Seeing Noel's blinkenlights project and list of panels, for interest's sake here is a picture and decription of the Foxboro drum indicator panel from one of the hardware manuals. http://web.aanet.com.au/~malikoff/foxboro/FOXBORO_Drum_indicator_panel_1.jpg http://web.aanet.com.au/~malikoff/foxboro/FOXBORO_Drum_indicator_panel_2.jpg There was no trace of any panel nor drum when I recovered the Foxboro 2/10 (PDP-11/15) but I did find the print set for the above panel (schematics only, no panel hardware details), and a set of RC11 modules (6 flip chips) wrapped with an error list printout. I'm not even sure if there was a drum fitted, as none of the notes I found for the actual installation mention it. There was no other drive in the rack when I got there, so I'm baffled as to what device the cards went to. Steve.

8 years, 8 months

QSIC update and request

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: David Bridgham > I could ask for a lot more really but that's pretty good. IMO we're 'over the hump' on the prototype phase of the project. The complete QBUS interface (including DMA and interrupts) are done, and very thoroughly tested, and now we have the SD interface up and running too. Once we get all this running reliably, IMO the remaining work (configuration, simulating the RP11, etc) will be relatively simple and straightforward. Then we get to the next major lump - turning out the production unit. > Here's a picture to my test setup: Looking at that brings up another piece of progress to report; that paper version of the indicator panel inlay is just about obsolete; we have produced blank inlays (the correct shape to fit into the bezel, but with just the back black layer with all the holes), and the next move is to produce ones with the white captions silk-screened on the front, just like the originals: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/DECIndicatorPanels.html So 'very soon' we should have a complete working indicator panel! A lot slower, overall, than we had hoped, but we're getting there! Noel

8 years, 8 months

Help diagnosing boot issue SWTPC 6800

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

I had that happening on mine.. came down to a bad RAM board. Sent from my Samsung device -------- Original message -------- From: Nick Allen via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: 2018-01-01 10:32 AM (GMT-08:00) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Help diagnosing boot issue SWTPC 6800 Hey everyone, Happy New Years!? I am thankful for an active community that enjoys helping each other learn, and today I am coming with an ask for help. I have a SWTPC 6800 and ADM3A terminal, I can get it to boot, and when it boots it will continue to boot for several hours.? But getting it to successfully boot takes upwards of 100 power OFF and ON cycles.? The other 99 times, I get a continuous stream of random ASCII characters (see video link below).? It's my first time seeing this type of issue that happens intermittently, and wondering if anyone has any insights in what might be causing this.? I suspect its a faulty IC on the Processor board that resets or controls the OS reset, will need to deep dive and diagnose, but thought I would ask for some direction first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci4vhPn-3PE Thanks in advance! -Nick

8 years, 8 months

Computing from 1976

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Peter Corlett > since we have computers with multiple gigabytes of RAM, it makes little > sense to restrain one's use of them to a fraction of the capabilities, > except as an intellectual exercise. For data, sure. (It's amazing how big even images can become, as the resolution is increased. And that's not even video!) For code, however, there are very good reasons to think that 'more is _NOT_ better'. More code means more complexity, and that has a host of Really Bad consequences: harder to understand, more likely to have bugs, etc, etc. It also often means that unless you have the Latest and Greatest hardware, the machine is simply too slow to run the latest bloatware. The machine I'm typing this on has a 1.4GHz single-core CPU, and _most_ things run on it just fine - but going to many Web sites is now painful, since the 'obligatory' HTTPS (another hot button, one I'll refrain from hitting right now, to keep the length of this down) makes even simple Web operations slow. Noel

8 years, 8 months

DEC quad board rack

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, I've been making wooden racks to hold a lot of my DEC boards, and I've finally come up with a nice design for one, which holds quad boards: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/QuadRack.jpg which holds them vertically. It's much better than the dual rack next to it, which holds them horizontally, which has the issue that the distance between the sides needs to be absolutely perfect, otherwise the boards tend to drop out of their slots. With the boards held vertically, it's much less sensitive. If anyone's interested in building one, I can whip up a drawing. (Note that the slots are offset slightly to the left because one needs different clearances for the solder and component sides.) The one shown uses 3 pieces of 1"x8"x6' (not sure what that translates to in that new-fangled French stuff :-). It would be tricky to make without a radial-arm saw, though - although I suppose a router with a small bit could be used, albeit tedious. Noel

8 years, 8 months

DEC quad board rack

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Michael Zahorik > a dozen or so spare boards for my PDP8E. I was wondering about how to > store them. Some guys recommend some poly bags, others say it is > important to protect against humidity. ... have you had any failures > while in storage? Well, i) most of my boards had been in uncertain storage for a long time before they got to me, and I've only tested a fraction of them, so if I tried one now, and it had an issue, I wouldn't know when (i.e. under which storage regime) it happened - some have shown failures, but I think they all happened before they got to me; ii) some of the failures we see (e.g. PROM's losing their programming) are known to happen via various time-related processes, not storage condition; and iii) I'm not a hardware person, but even then, you'd want someone with expertise in failures, which is not common. But, having said that, these are my 'common-sense' rules for storage: i) bags aren't critical (especially for older stuff, which is generally bipolar, not CMOS, and therefore not very sensitive to static), ii) high humidity is not good, as you can get corrosion on chip leads (I've seen a few where the leads were so corroded they came off)- but very low humidity can be an issue, if you have CMOS, as it's more static-friendly (as Dave Bridgham found out the hard way in his lab); iii) large-amplitude temperature cycles are not good, as thermally-induced contraction and expansion probably aren't good; and avoiding very high, and very low temperatures (even if constant) is probably better for long-term health. Noel

8 years, 8 months

Boot RXS

by jcwelch＠hal-pc.org

Hello, With the wonderful help of many you here I have revived a PDP11/04, connected it to an RL02, and using PDP11GUI I have successfully imaged a number of RL02 packs.? I found a copy of an RQ device that boots.? I can attach my images and explore the contents with PIP so I believe the transfer was good. One of the packs was a system disk so I tried to boot it like this: ?? PDP-11 simulator V3.8-2 (JH stdio telnet) ?? sim> set cpu 11/93, 4M ?? Disabling CR ?? Disabling RK ?? Disabling HK ?? Disabling TM ?? sim> set cpu idle ?? sim> set rl0 rl02 ?? sim> attach rl0 RSX11-bu.rl02 ?? sim> b rl0 ?? SAV -- SOFTWARE CONFIGURED FOR ENABLE HARDWARE WHICH DOES NOT RESPOND.? HALTED. ?? HALT instruction, PC: 126272 (BR 126270) ?? sim> Does anyone have any hints on how I can guess what I need to add? The original machine was and 11/34 (maybe a 11/34a) and had a multi-line serial port setup.? All thoughts appreciated. Sincerely, John Welch :qw

8 years, 8 months

Computing from 1976

by gerhard.kreuzer＠liftoff.at

Hi, I was working 1976 as a volunteer at a research center near Vienna in Austria writing FORTRAN programs on a PDP8a. We also have a PDP8/e there. Now I am collecting DEC stuff. Happy new year !!!!!!!!!!!! Gerhard -----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht----- Von: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] Im Auftrag von cctalk-request at classiccmp.org Gesendet: Sonntag, 31. Dezember 2017 19:00 An: cctalk at classiccmp.org Betreff: cctalk Digest, Vol 39, Issue 30 Send cctalk mailing list submissions to cctalk at classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctalk-request at classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctalk-owner at classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..."

8 years, 8 months

Message 4 on Computing from 1976

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

"Message: 4 Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2017 10:35:18 +1100 From: Nigel Williams <nw at retrocomputingtasmania.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Computing from 1976 Message-ID: <CACCFpdyNiS2tCog38CbrHm2BuTAY=wh4PAJRZ0-Gz0z=0=9t4A at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 9:57 AM, william degnan via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: >> what magazine? https://books.google.com.au/books?id=7wAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA82 note. Popular Science Dec-1976 *** Thanks Nigel. I apologize to all for not putting this magazine name in my original note. I've been thinking this New Year's eve about the world of classic computing: How far has personal computing actually advanced? Not talking about computing on the Net or such. Just plain computing! Or is there such a thing the last day of 2017? Happy computing for 2018. Murray :)

8 years, 8 months

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