test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by aek＠bitsavers.org

This is a mystery. What DEC system used a CDC Sentinel DC300 cartridge tape drive? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Computer-DEC-BY5A5-E-Tape-Drive-77-014320/…

4 years, 9 months

One more thing to fix... HP9000/380 power supply

by ce.murillosanchez＠gmail.com

This decade seems to have increased the number of failing things in such a way that the "to be repaired" backlog is growing much faster than I can get to diminish it. Argh.? A month ago my trusty HP9000/380 ran just fine and I booted the different OS's in the SCSI and HPIB drives connected to it (this particular machine is interesting because the 9000/300 port of NetBSD was partly developed in it: it was Mike Wolfson's). Yesterday, it failed to turn on; the power supply is dead.? So I unracked the pile of drives and the computer, checked for obvious things (the fuse is fine, and nothing in the power supply is swelled up or leaking, or browned by heat; visually, it looks new; the HV caps seem to hold a charge).? I need the schematics for the power supply (at least the output connector; I can work my way back from that)? and also those for the backplane in this hp9000/380.? A preliminary search at bitsavers and elsewhere did not help.? Does anybody have these? In the meantime, I finally improved the mainboard (had the parts for a long while) from a 380 to a 385 by changing the clock generator, and replacing the 68040RC25 with an RC33. I ran this machine as a web server continuously for ten years in the 2000's, totally exposed.? Many tried to hack it... and failed. Another personal connection to this architecture is that I used Apollos and hp9000/300 at UW-Madison back in 1989-91.? Boy, did I crunch numbers... carlos.

4 years, 9 months

Reading ESDI disks

by mattislind＠gmail.com

What is the best way of dumping the contents of an ESDI disk? I have an original IBM Enhanced ESDI ISA controller board. Could that be used under Linux? Or NetBSD/FreeNSD? I googled but didn't find much. Is there any other way of dumping the disk contents? In theory it should be just a matter of clocking the raw data and finding the marks and extracting the data. Has anyone done something similar? /Mattis

4 years, 9 months

APL\360

by boris＠summitclinic.com

Counting in binary on ones fingers was something I first ran into at age 11 when found a book on Military Electronics in a surplus store. Everything simplified, but in computer section found binary system explained with using fingers to represent bits. That was something that I used immediately as used to count steps to various places but after 1000+ steps would often forget where I was so would increment my binary digital counter every 100 steps. At that age 1 mile was probably about 2500 steps so I my counter would have overflowed at about 40.9 miles. Also LSB was my left small finger which seems weird now but suspect that's what illustration in book showed of how to count in binary on your fingers. Found manual method easier to use than a pedometer. >I too count sheep with my fingers, but I never get past zero due to the >lack of sheep. :-) > >Tom Hunter > >On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 5:34 PM Tor Arntsen via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >wrote: > > > On Sat, 30 Jan 2021 at 03:27, dwight via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > wrote: > > > If we'd thought about it we could count to 1023 on our fingers. > > > Dwight > > > > Some sheep herders in (IIRC) the Caucasus do, or did at least. I > > learned about that some decades ago. Counting sheep on their fingers. > > I use the system sometimes. > > > > -Tor > >

4 years, 9 months

Al Lasher's electronics closing.

by korpela＠ssl.berkeley.edu

One fewer place to obtain old stock components in the NorCal East Bay. https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/12/03/lashers-electronics-berkeley-busine… -- Eric Korpela korpela at ssl.berkeley.edu AST:7731^29u18e3

4 years, 9 months

IBM AS/400 and HP scope for sale in the UK

by alsilisk＠icloud.com

Dear all, I have been looking to downsize a bit in recent times and am looking to get rid of an IBM AS/400 9404 F10 and an HP 175a oscilloscope. As these things are large they are pickup only in the Petersfield area. I cannot guarantee either work. Although the scope comes with spares and does show some signs of life. It is not my area of expertise and it is probably going to need a full rework, it being from the 60s. The AS/400 is a similar story although will probably be a much simpler task. Send me an email if you are interested in either one of them or want pictures or have questions. I also realise it is lockdown, but if you send me a line now I can hold them for you rather than them being scrapped. Thanks, Al

4 years, 9 months

ENIAC 75th Anniversary Celebration

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

This evening begins a series of events celebrating the 75th anniversary of the unveiling of the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania.? On the 11th and 18th, the Philadelphia Venture Cafe will be hosting virtual round tables with a number of us who have some connection to the ENIAC and Philadelphia technology.? Included among the people present will be: - Bill Mauchly and Chris Eckert, sons of the ENIAC creators - Bill Mensch, part of the 6502 engineering team - Kathy Kleiman, producer of the ENIAC programmers documentary (And yes, I'll be there for anyone who wants to get nerdy and talk about the technical aspects of the machine and its programming.) Monday, the 15th is the day of the anniversary, and there will be a full day of webcasting.? Starting at 10:30 EST, UPenn will be holding a mini-symposium in recognition of the ENIAC.? Then at 3:30 EST, Unisys will be webcasting an ENIAC celebration video that includes a number of panel discussions, as well as clips from early newsreels, and happy birthday wishes >from the various locations housing ENIAC artifacts. More details and links to all the events can be found here: http://www.eniacday.org/events/ BLS

4 years, 9 months

RX02 DMK image to raw tool?

by david4602＠gmail.com

On 2/8/21 1:00 PM, Mattis Lind wrote: > This is highly annoying. Back in 2015 I did exactly this and now I have > forgotten how. > > I dumped a set of RX02 disks with catweasel into .DMK and now I want a raw > sector image to be able to test them with SimH. > > What is a good tool to use? I have some faint memory of glancing through > hexdumps of .dmk files. Perhaps I did something myself using dmklib by Eric > Smith? Don't really remember, unfortunately. > > But surely someone else has already done this, right? > > /Mattis I wrote my own, not knowing where another one lived. I happen to think in Java, so that's what it's implemented in. Description is here: https://github.com/RetroFloppy/transformenator/wiki/Utility-Functions#dmk2r… Code is here: https://github.com/RetroFloppy/transformenator/blob/master/src/org/transfor… The only thing of interest is the cw2dmk tool would read RX01 disks and "double" the data - so my tool will make an attempt to detect that and halve the data back out the other end. - David

4 years, 9 months

New pinion gears for plotters...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

For those of you with the Atari & Commodore pen plotters that have broken pinion gears, there's now a guy making new ones in brass: https://www.soigeneris.com/alps-printer-plotter-mechanism-pinion-gears 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://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

4 years, 9 months

Mystery NCR disk pack

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, there is an NCR-labelled disk pack offered in the bay with a geometry that I've never come across before: https://www.ebay.com/itm/353379280282 It seems to be a 14" pack with three platter and six recordable surfaces. The platters themselves are quite thick and the distance between the platters is quite wide compared to the IBM 1316 and 2316 type standards. Does anybody know if this is really an NCR development or if it is a rebadged pack from another manufacturer? Any hints to solve this mystery is much appreciated :) Best regards, Pierre PS: I wonder if the seller describing the party dog is describing himself, but partying seemed to be an important part of his life ;) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

4 years, 9 months

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