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Re: old computers

 

Anyone looking to dispose of / find old computer parts should get in touch
with the classic computer group
- classiccmp.org.



Geoff.

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Ashton Brown <ashton@...>

<snip>
Still have a pristine OtronaT CP/M portable w/ 5" green screen -
operable last year I looked. Any takers?
(Word Star mnemonic codes inculcated into fingers.. still beats
stupid-mousing distractions and M$ Word style eye candy -- for sheer
speed of text entry -- for any touch typist. ^KS - saves your work, etc.
You never forget, as their mnemonics made logical sense immediately -
and your hands never left the home row.)

Fat chance of getting a 100 GB HD onto that CP/M OS, though :-/

I have an old PDP8/E with a TU56 dectape drive. In the
spirit of tektronix, I am looking for a 4010 to use with
it.

-Chuck Harris



Yahoo! Groups Links







Yahoo! Groups Links





--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.441 / Virus Database: 268.17.31/676 - Release Date: 08/02/07
15:04
"new" old computer!

John Doran
 

Howdy!



I *adore* old computers. My personal favorites were the DEC machines
such the PDP-8E. Of course, a big front panel, or "programmer's
console," was a must.



My DEC PDP-8/E system, purchased at surplus for all of $50, was
enormous, heavy, noisy, and rough on the electric bill. The CPU and its
bulk storage (a set of three DF-32 hard drives that stored all of 32K
12-bit words each!) occupied a 6-foot rack. All those cooling fans
sounded like a jet aircraft.



This system was tremendous fun to play with, but I really needed to
reclaim the space, and I didn't have much in the way of software (this
was back before the World Wide Web; these days, you can get just about
anything you want). So, I gave it away...



After a while, I was seriously sorry about that. By the late '90's, the
classic computer bug was back with a vengeance, biting me like a
crocodile!



So, I thought about just getting another 8E, or perhaps an 11. After
some consideration, I concluded that this would probably not be a good
idea--like the Tek 500 series 'scopes, the old minicomputers are
becoming seriously ancient. Then, there is that frightful power
consumption (most of them were implemented in standard TTL or even ECL).
Finally, even when they were new, these machines were pretty much
intended to be turned on and left on in a clean, air-conditioned
environment--my DF-32 disks, for instance, made a dreadful screeching
noise on power-down as the heads descended to the surfaces of the disks,
and after just a few on/off cycles, they would "forget" the operating
system!



That left me with one alternative; to design and build *my own* classic
minicomputer!



You may see the result on my Web page (brag!):







It was easy to build and debug, using nothing more than my trusty Tek
7834 storage 'scope. And, since it's made out of high-speed CMOS logic,
it takes only a few watts to run the thing as quietly as a mouse. I
have it talking to a restored DECwriter III (LA-120) printing terminal,
and I am working on an operating system right now.



-John
Re: old computers

Michael Bender
 

d.seiter@... wrote:

Still have few 6502 based single boards like the Aim65, KIM-1
Ahh... the KIM-1 brings back fond memories. That was the first
microprocessor that I programmed, in HEX on the keypad, since
my friend and I didn't have the tape recorder interface. We
used it to control stage lights for our disco parties - this
was the mid-to late-70's remember! We had to hand type in all
the opcodes before each party, and hope that the KIM-1 didn't
crash or lock up or reset and wipe out RAM, otherwise we'd be
back to typing in the program again while the lights were left
in some random state.

mike
Re: A company with a Tek-of-old type policy 180 out

 

180 out!!!!!
Here is an item that is so ridiculously fragile that it sometime breaks
the same day that it is replaced.
An absolute POS that is probably adding a lot to GE profits.
"They don't make them like they used to" *100.
Welcome to Y2K+







WB15X10022 GE Hotpoint RCA Microwave Handle
Re: A company with a Tek-of-old type policy

J Forster
 

So your shower uses custom ICs built on a technology that is now
obsolete and unable to be fabbed anywhere? Very advanced! (:^p


Very likely so. A different shower uses an American Standard CeraMix
valve with integral, solar cell powered, digital thermometer. I'll bet
that's a custom IC.

8=))

-John
Re: old computers

Stefan Trethan
 

On Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:06:17 +0100, Hugh Prescott <hugh345@...> wrote:

Found an old but good WD 345 Mb drive, made up power and IDE drive
cables to run the CD drive outside the case. Found the USB CD ROM
version of Win 95 and then the special boot floppy to install Win 95 on
systems that will not boot from a CD. Took more than 3 hours to find
all the stuff, get it all together and load Win 95 but it all came together.
Drove it out to the plant and hooked it up. Loaded their punch control
software and loaded a job to punch. Everything worked like a charm.
They think I am a freeking hero.
Hugh
Never throw anything away ever.

Would it not have been easier to install 95 on a PC with CD drive, or copy the install directory to the harddisk?
It gets a little frightened and confused if you put it in a totally different PC (drivers), but it usually survives just fine. If you want to spare it that traumatic experience you can pull the power after the first reboot (before it detects hardware), and transplant.

What kept you from running the harddrive internally?

ST
A company with a Tek-of-old type policy

J Forster
 

Folks

This is kind of off-topic, but bear with me. It relates to shower
units,
and a UK supplier.

Our shower cubicle bit the dust when the tile grout failed and
deposited
modest quantities of water into our ground floor. The shower itself
was
installed when the house was built in 1993, the brand being Aqualisa.
As
part of the rebuild, I badly did not want to replace the enitre shower

system, but rather wanted to replace a number of external trim parts.

I was delighted to find that Aqualisa offer every single spare for
every
shower that they have ever made! From 1986 to present day. All on
clickable exploded diagrams. Better still, the parts arrived the next
day.
And this is for a shower that they obsoleted in 1996. [snip]


Heavens!! It's quite easy in the US to get essentially all service parts
for any plumbing thing back to at least the 1920s. I've had no
difficulty getting an exact replacement core for shower valves installed
in 1956 in less than two minutes. There are at least 4 local sources
within a 5 mile radius. I picked the closest

In fact, it's harder to get parts for new stuff in my experience.

-John
Re: A company with a Tek-of-old type policy

Denis Cobley
 

Toyota also had a similar policy until a few years ago.

I had a friend with a 62 wagon and he broke the back window - Toyota
actually manufactured a new one in Japan and air freighted it to
Australia - pity now they don't even fix major software bugs in the
Kluger throttle system.



I suppose when they are trying to compete with the throw away products
coming from China something has to give.

They now adopt the same throw away mentality with their products too.



Regards,



Denis

________________________________

From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On
Behalf Of Craig Sawyers
Sent: Friday, 9 February 2007 6:25 AM
To: Tekscopes (E-mail)
Subject: [TekScopes] A company with a Tek-of-old type policy



Folks

This is kind of off-topic, but bear with me. It relates to shower units,
and a UK supplier.

Our shower cubicle bit the dust when the tile grout failed and deposited
modest quantities of water into our ground floor. The shower itself was
installed when the house was built in 1993, the brand being Aqualisa. As
part of the rebuild, I badly did not want to replace the enitre shower
system, but rather wanted to replace a number of external trim parts.

I was delighted to find that Aqualisa offer every single spare for every
shower that they have ever made! From 1986 to present day. All on
clickable exploded diagrams. Better still, the parts arrived the next
day.
And this is for a shower that they obsoleted in 1996.

In an era where most companies would oblige the customer to buy an
entirely
new unit, it is such a refreshing change to come across an enlightened
organisation who puts the customer first.

Of course the Tek content is that back in the golden days of yore, Tek
used
to have this kind of policy. Alas gone the way of dust. Buy a new unit,
Customer if your instrument is more than an nanosecond past obsolete.
And
only Board-level-servicable when within a knat's whisker of new.

So well done Aqualisa!

Craig
Re: A company with a Tek-of-old type policy

Kuba Ober
 

On Thursday 08 February 2007 15:07, you wrote:
So your shower uses custom ICs built on a technology that is now
obsolete and unable to be fabbed anywhere? Very advanced! (:^p
Well, don't be so quick to diss them. They likely have to maintain the tooling
for all the old parts, and that takes lots of room and perseverance. Many
companies won't manufacture old parts simply because the molds take up too
much room in their warehouse. A company with an active product line would
need to stock tens of tons of molds for just a couple years of support span.
Heck, there are molds, and then there's all the other tooling that's needed,
e.g. weld fixtures, drill fixtures, CNC tapes/programs and so on. And they
must be really current on their documentation, as in many places the old docs
simply get lost, the people change workplaces, and noone may even remember
some old products.

Cheers, Kuba
Re: old computers home brew 72

 

Intel 8008 first up this month 35 years ago.
Every connection (hand) wire wrapped.
I still have it and it still runs.
Have all of the documentation to back up this date.
Can anyone beat this date with a privately owned and
personally financed home computer?
I have met several people who have claimed to be
earlier than this but didn't have even the slightest proof
to show.
Some of the final debugging was done on a (BIG!) Tek scope.
I can't remember the number but it had delayed sweep,
two carrying handles on top and a CA plugin.

Bert


Hugh Prescott wrote:

Everything from a wire wrapped 1802, low serial # Altair, early IMSI etc.

Most will still power up.

Hugh

arthurok_2000 wrote:
is anyone in this group other then dave wise
into old computers??





Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: A company with a Tek-of-old type policy

[email protected]
 

So your shower uses custom ICs built on a technology that is now
obsolete and unable to be fabbed anywhere? Very advanced! (:^p

-----Original Message-----
From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On
Behalf Of Craig Sawyers
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 11:25
To: Tekscopes (E-mail)
Subject: [TekScopes] A company with a Tek-of-old type policy


Folks

This is kind of off-topic, but bear with me. It relates to shower
units,
and a UK supplier.

Our shower cubicle bit the dust when the tile grout failed and deposited
modest quantities of water into our ground floor. The shower itself was
installed when the house was built in 1993, the brand being Aqualisa.
As
part of the rebuild, I badly did not want to replace the enitre shower
system, but rather wanted to replace a number of external trim parts.

I was delighted to find that Aqualisa offer every single spare for every
shower that they have ever made! From 1986 to present day. All on
clickable exploded diagrams. Better still, the parts arrived the next
day.
And this is for a shower that they obsoleted in 1996.

In an era where most companies would oblige the customer to buy an
entirely
new unit, it is such a refreshing change to come across an enlightened
organisation who puts the customer first.

Of course the Tek content is that back in the golden days of yore, Tek
used
to have this kind of policy. Alas gone the way of dust. Buy a new
unit,
Customer if your instrument is more than an nanosecond past obsolete.
And
only Board-level-servicable when within a knat's whisker of new.

So well done Aqualisa!

Craig




Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: old computers

[email protected]
 

My high school was supposedly the first to have a PDP-8/E installed (~1976?). We had a punch card reader and 2 punch card machines (I haven't seen one since!) along with the usual peripherals. The service people hated us because the computer lab was in a portable classroom and wasn't anywhere near "clean". They were always out fixing something. For a while one we had a problem with the tapes staying on the drives- the right one would pop off and unwind through the door into the adjoining classroom...

-Dave

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Ashton Brown <ashton@...>

Heh.. cut teeth on a PDP-8 - we were first to use a "(mini)computer" to
control the guide field of a large particle accelerator.
Here was this 'bitchin' lookin heavy/small Thing with smoked-plastic
covers: blinking at you. In Octal.

The DEC "manual" was written for those who already knew what was in the
manual. I had to start with a blackboard and Boolean Algebra book, on
through RIM loader, wft-is-'assembly'?, wtf is an 'ALU', octal etc. I
realized I'd never be (want to be) a programmer, but at least learned
how-to: create a program to print out a BCD encoded paper tape on the
ASR-33. Valuable lore.. from machine language through assy and compiling
my source on the CDC-6600. And quite enough por moi, thankyouverymuch.

It's always useful to suffer through the basics.. then no snot-nose
wannabe-someday 'IT'er can baffle you with BS.. 'explaining-away' some
latest Redmond buffer overflow - built in by some bored committee of
drones chained to a cubicle 10 years ago: and today -?- exposing you to
the spoofer from Belgrade. Crapware has now infected the entire World.
It will take a generation to undo what autistic/arrogant Billy has done
to us all. For mere greed via mere hubris.

Still have a pristine Otrona� CP/M portable w/ 5" green screen -
operable last year I looked. Any takers?
(Word Star mnemonic codes inculcated into fingers.. still beats
stupid-mousing distractions and M$ Word style eye candy -- for sheer
speed of text entry -- for any touch typist. ^KS - saves your work, etc.
You never forget, as their mnemonics made logical sense immediately -
and your hands never left the home row.)

Fat chance of getting a 100 GB HD onto that CP/M OS, though :-/



Chuck Harris wrote:

arthurok_2000 wrote:


is anyone in this group other then dave wise
into old computers??

I have an old PDP8/E with a TU56 dectape drive. In the
spirit of tektronix, I am looking for a 4010 to use with
it.

-Chuck Harris



Yahoo! Groups Links


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: old computers

[email protected]
 

I used to have a bunch of old Commodore PET/CBM machines built from scrap they tossed out, including lots of schematics, eng data, prototypes, etc but sold 98% of it to a school teacher in the late 80's for $20. Wish I had kept one of the top end systems. Still have few 6502 based single boards like the Aim65, KIM-1, and one of the comsac? Sym boards (I'm a little hazy on these). Oh, and an HP86.
-Dave

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Chuck Harris <cfharris@...>
arthurok_2000 wrote:
is anyone in this group other then dave wise
into old computers??
I have an old PDP8/E with a TU56 dectape drive. In the
spirit of tektronix, I am looking for a 4010 to use with
it.

-Chuck Harris
A company with a Tek-of-old type policy

Craig Sawyers
 

Folks

This is kind of off-topic, but bear with me. It relates to shower units,
and a UK supplier.

Our shower cubicle bit the dust when the tile grout failed and deposited
modest quantities of water into our ground floor. The shower itself was
installed when the house was built in 1993, the brand being Aqualisa. As
part of the rebuild, I badly did not want to replace the enitre shower
system, but rather wanted to replace a number of external trim parts.

I was delighted to find that Aqualisa offer every single spare for every
shower that they have ever made! From 1986 to present day. All on
clickable exploded diagrams. Better still, the parts arrived the next day.
And this is for a shower that they obsoleted in 1996.

In an era where most companies would oblige the customer to buy an entirely
new unit, it is such a refreshing change to come across an enlightened
organisation who puts the customer first.

Of course the Tek content is that back in the golden days of yore, Tek used
to have this kind of policy. Alas gone the way of dust. Buy a new unit,
Customer if your instrument is more than an nanosecond past obsolete. And
only Board-level-servicable when within a knat's whisker of new.

So well done Aqualisa!

Craig
Re: old computers

Hugh Prescott
 

Yesterday got a call from a metal fabrication plant that I had helped figure out some RS-232 problems commuincating with a CNC turrnt punch several years ago. Big sucker 12 inch holes in 1/2 inch plate steel at about 30 per second.

Big piles of steel plate waiting to be punched, it's a RUSH repair.

Had the computer that is used to upload the punch programs go down. Compaq ProLinnea 486SX with 200Mhz Pentium Overdrive chip, 20 Mb RAM and a 270 Mb hard drive and a 3.5 floppy.

Hard drive was totally dead. No CD ROM drive in this all in one box.

Found an old but good WD 345 Mb drive, made up power and IDE drive cables to run the CD drive outside the case. Found the USB CD ROM version of Win 95 and then the special boot floppy to install Win 95 on systems that will not boot from a CD. Took more than 3 hours to find all the stuff, get it all together and load Win 95 but it all came together.

Drove it out to the plant and hooked it up. Loaded their punch control software and loaded a job to punch. Everything worked like a charm.

They think I am a freeking hero.

Hugh
Never throw anything away ever.
Re: EProm burner

 

Leon Heller wrote:
Does anyone have an Eprom reader and burner available? I need to have a
74S288 read and 4 pieces burned with the same image. I am happy to pay one
of the group to do it for me.
I don't think that is an EPROM, it looks more like a fusible-link PROM.
That's because it is a fuse-PROM. 256x4 with tristate outputs, cross-references to the Signetics 82S129.

--
Phil. | (&#92;_/) This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny
ygroups@... | (='.'=) into your signature to help him gain
| (")_(") world domination.
Re: old computers

Hugh Prescott
 

Chuck

I have a working DecWriter wide carriage L120-DA sitting here looking for a home.

It's in Quincy IL , 100 miles north of St. Louis. Prefer it be picked up.

Last used as a lineprinter on a Novell network.

Complete tech manual included.

Hugh


Chuck Harris wrote:

Hi Arthur,

I am currently using a laptop to act as the console terminal. It works
just fine, but then again, the laptop works better and is decades faster
than the 8/E, so might just as well not use the 8/E at all!

I am looking for a console terminal that is age appropriate to the 8/E.
A 4010, or 4012 looks nice, and was used on 8/E's in the research world.
At least the 4010 is built with ttl chips, like the 8/E.

A DecWriter or ASR33 would be more authentic, though.

-Chuck

arthurok wrote:

i like dec tape drives and the tu56 was a very good one
im not sure the 4010 was a very good terminal
it would be easy to use an old pc as a terminal and even use it to load in paper tape images.
a dectape stores about as much info as an 8" single sided single density floppy.
that was decs replacement for the dec tape did you know the dec tape seeks at almost 100 inches per second??


Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: EProm burner

Leon Heller
 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Gisler" <gislerhj@...>
To: <TekScopes@...>
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 5:29 PM
Subject: [TekScopes] EProm burner



Does anyone have an Eprom reader and burner available? I need to have a
74S288 read and 4 pieces burned with the same image. I am happy to pay one
of the group to do it for me.
I don't think that is an EPROM, it looks more like a fusible-link PROM.

Leon
--
Leon Heller
Amateur radio call-sign G1HSM
Yaesu FT-817ND transceiver
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle
leon355@...
Re: First post - Hello and a question

Dennis Tillman
 

Rockland Instruments (later bought by Wavetek) made a fabulous FFT based
spectrum analyzer for the 7000 series scopes. It is the 7530A/B. They show
up on eBay about once a yaar. The last one sold for less than $100.
Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf
Of Greg_A
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 9:25 PM
To: Kuba Ober; TekScopes@...
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] First post - Hello and a question

For audio band distortions you just need what is called Wave Analyzer (in
other
words spectrum analyzer) in 5Hz -50kHz. I own one with some same spare - HP
analyzer for audio band.
Any scope is not capable to "see" small distortions....

Greg
Re: old computers

 

-----Original Message-----
From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...]On
Behalf Of Chuck Harris

arthurok_2000 wrote:
is anyone in this group other then dave wise
into old computers??
I have an old PDP8/E with a TU56 dectape drive. In the
spirit of tektronix, I am looking for a 4010 to use with
it.

-Chuck Harris
There were two computers in the dusty storeroom
at the University of Portland in 1978: the 1620
I would rescue from the scrap dealer, and a
PDP-8/e + 4010 + TU56. Someone had built a
custom interface that allowed the PDP to read
paper tapes using the 1620's paper tape reader,
which could load PAL-8 at 150 bytes/second,
15 times the speed of the ASR33 that sat
abandoned in the corner.

This is in turn much slower than my early-1970's
Remex paper tape reader. It's interesting to
compare technologies. The ASR-33 was 100% mechanical,
and read tapes by poking at them with spring-loaded
pins. Any pin that went through was a 1. The
1621 (1620 PT reader) uses photodiodes, but
still drives the tape with a pinwheel which
furnishes the clock output. The electronics
are discrete PNP Ge transistors. The Remex uses
TTL. It shrank the photodiodes enough that they
could slip a ninth one between 4 and 5 to read
the feed hole directly, and it runs the tape with
a rubber capstan drive, at twice (maybe 4x - I
can't remember) the speed of the 1621.

ObTek: I brought up the 1620 with the aid of a 535.
I heard later from one of the original IBM design team
that they used the same model when they were bringing
up the product for the first time.

ObTek2: The custom interface used Tek-numbered transistors.
And they weren't the ubiquitous -0188/-0190 (2N3906/4).

Dave
182681 - 182700 of 208742