Misc.

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Mon Jun 9 00:50:23 1997

A.R. Duell wrote:
>
> >
> > > Ok, you have just put us all to eternal shame. Do you have a list of all
> > > you've got? cuz I'm entirely interested to know. Or perhaps just an
> > > excerpt of your more rare systems. Where the hell do you store it all?
>
> Wow.... This lot totally dwarfs my little collection (I think I have about
> 150 machines, including calculators, but excluding interesting
> peripherals), and I thought I was doing pretty well!

150 computers is doing VERY well, I just have a lot of friends who found
a suc, er, someone to take the stuff so they don't have to throw it away
:). Yesterday, another friend gave me a C64, disk drive, and color
monitor. I started collecting sometime about 1986 and was fortunate in
having quite a few friends in the computer business as well as space to
store the stuff. Additionally, I help a local private school put on a
"Computer Rummage Sale" and end up with a lot of stuff they couldn't
sell. Hope I haven't given you the impression I am a junk collector :).

On a more serious note, there is also a local Classic Computer club with
a small (a dozen or so) but devoted membership who are extremely
knowledgeable about a wide range of the older computers. From that
group, I was given a couple of Jonos computers, TRS Model 4, a Smoke
Signal Broadcasting BFD-16, an Altos system, and a number of other
computers. I also have three other friends who, like myself, are
interested in putting together a computer museum. The biggest problem
is financing such a venture since to do a professional job, we would
most likely need at least 5000 sq ft of building.

>
> > the earliest is probably the PDP 8i, and PDP 11/05. Of course the Mits
>
> Do you have any other minis? I find them a lot more interesting than
> micros, as I think I've mentioned before, since you can actually
> understand how the CPU works at gate level.
>

I have a bit of DEC stuff including a Minc (I think that is the correct
spelling) that I have no idea what it was used for, a couple of 11/23s,
and at least one 11/34. There is also a Kennedy Disk Unit, a 470 MB
Hard Disk (probably for the Dec stuff) that is a rack mount, and a bunch
of spare M and K series interface boards. One thing I am *really* glad
now that I didn't get rid of are the engineering drawings and
maintenance manuals for the PDP 8i, PDP 16, PDP 11/05, PDP 11/45, and
some of the perpherals (RK05 disk unit and ???? memory). I spent about
6 weeks or so up at DEC in the early 70's and was able to get
documentation for the things I was working on.

> A tip : Get known where you work (and at church, clubs, etc) as somebody
> who wants old computer and electronic 'junk'. It's amazing what you get
> given - several times people have said 'Oh, we're about to throw this out,
> do you want it' where 'this' is a complete computer system with all
> manuals.
>

I am "known" :). That is the way I have gotten most of the stuff I
have. Occassionally, I'll actually buy something (like the mint Xerox
820-II) but I try to avoid that if possible. I tend to overdo whatever
I get into and I still have a 10 or so coin ops that I am starting to
try and get rid of. At one time, I had about 50 of them and I wasn't
even in the business! When people had machines that didn't work, I
ended up with them. Of course, being able to repair them made things
easier :).

> > Another thing I am looking for are the docs and schematics for the Zenith
> > H-67 Hard Disk sub-system used with the H-89. The H-67 has a bad power
> > supply board, and without the schematics, it is a bit hard to
> > troubleshoot.
>
> Power supplies are either linear or switchers. Linears are next-to-trivial
> to sort out (at least if they use any of the standard regulator IC's), and
> switching units can be repaired.

If it was just that, it would be easy, but I think the HD and Floppy
controllers are built onto the same board. As I recall, it is not a
switcher but rather a linear type supply. I started into it a few years
ago and decided at that time to wait until schematics were available.
Received on Mon Jun 09 1997 - 00:50:23 BST