I know I'm in the process of being hooked up, but I think it will be great to be able to access DECUS via DECnet. Does anyone offer a news feed via HECnet?
Regards,
Daniel.
Sent from my iPad
On 28 Sep 2013, at 05:42, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
On 2013-09-28 05:41, Johnny Billquist wrote:
On 2013-09-28 05:20, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Johnny Billquist wrote:
Mine worked like any asynchronous serial interface. Plain RS-232.
Sounds like there's a magic switch somewhere ... Now to find it.
Either that, or the port is broken. I seem to remember mine breaking a
couple of times, and me repairing it. But any further details have been
forgotten. I only remember that it wasn't hard to figure out or fix.
I assume you have tried shorting pin 2&3 of the serial port, and nothing
happens when you type...?
Open it up. There is a large board at the bottom which if I remember
right, is pretty much all of it.
Oh, I should mention - I don't remember there being more than one rotary switch for speed selection, but check to make sure there isn't a separate for Tx and Rx, and them being set differently for split speed...
Just out of interest, how hard would it be to get hold of this TRAX software platform that uses VT62 in it's block mode (it runs on "high end PDP-11s")?
Anybody ever program anything for it?
On 2013-09-28 05:41, Johnny Billquist wrote:
On 2013-09-28 05:20, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Johnny Billquist wrote:
Mine worked like any asynchronous serial interface. Plain RS-232.
Sounds like there's a magic switch somewhere ... Now to find it.
Either that, or the port is broken. I seem to remember mine breaking a
couple of times, and me repairing it. But any further details have been
forgotten. I only remember that it wasn't hard to figure out or fix.
I assume you have tried shorting pin 2&3 of the serial port, and nothing
happens when you type...?
Open it up. There is a large board at the bottom which if I remember
right, is pretty much all of it.
Oh, I should mention - I don't remember there being more than one rotary switch for speed selection, but check to make sure there isn't a separate for Tx and Rx, and them being set differently for split speed...
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
On 2013-09-28 05:20, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Johnny Billquist wrote:
Mine worked like any asynchronous serial interface. Plain RS-232.
Sounds like there's a magic switch somewhere ... Now to find it.
Either that, or the port is broken. I seem to remember mine breaking a couple of times, and me repairing it. But any further details have been forgotten. I only remember that it wasn't hard to figure out or fix.
I assume you have tried shorting pin 2&3 of the serial port, and nothing happens when you type...?
Open it up. There is a large board at the bottom which if I remember right, is pretty much all of it.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
Johnny Billquist wrote:
Mine worked like any asynchronous serial interface. Plain RS-232.
Sounds like there's a magic switch somewhere ... Now to find it.
Bob
On 2013-09-28 03:04, John Wilson wrote:
From: Bob Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com>
What can be done (non-destructive suggestions only, please) with a
VT-62? This is NOT a VT52 (although it looks like one). The VT62 is a
block mode terminal that, I think, actually speaks DDCMP. AFAIK it's
incapable of being a plain ASCII terminal unless there's some hack I'm
unaware of.
Have you tried it? I had a VT62 on my PDT-11/150 in college and I know
there was supposed to be a block mode, but it also worked fine as just a
VT52 clone, but with a speaker for keyclick/^G instead of a clacker, ESC T
switches you to reverse video and ESC U switches you back, and after column
72 there are tabs at every column. Other than that it's exactly a VT52 IIRC.
No idea if mine had been jumpered or had the ROMs switched or anything
to make it so normal. I bought it from an ex-DEC-employee (DEC dumped
a lot of the PDTs to their own employees) and I suppose it's possible
he got a special version.
I used a VT62 for more than 10 years in the late 80s and early 90s. Yes, they work exactly as you write, John. VT52 compatible, but with a different BEL sound, and capable of inverse video.
I wrote a termcap entry for it, but I'm not sure if I still have it around.
If they were capable of block mode, then it must be as Lee wrote, there must be a switch somewhere inside for it. Mine worked like any asynchronous serial interface. Plain RS-232. Not sure about any modem signals, but doubt it. Didn't run too fast. 9600 bps max maybe?
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
On 2013-09-27 22:19, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 09/27/2013 04:06 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
Ahh ok. Well, if I run the 11/24, I obviously won't be running
that
stack. :) I may run an 11/44 instead.
Running M+ on an 11/23 or 11/24 (the only systems without I/D space that
M+ supports) is perhaps not the most wonderful experience anyway. Since
you don't have split I/D-space on those systems, system pool becomes
really scarce. And that is not fun.
An 11/44 is so much better.
Yeah I suppose so.
I've never run Plus on anything. I've run plain M on lots of stuff
though; it's fine on an 11/23. I guess Plus is a lot heavier for all of
its additional functionality.
Depends on what you mean by "heavier". The performance is mostly better,
the capabilities are much greater, and it's much more user friendly and
fun. But it takes loads of more memory for all of this.
Actually better performance, even with all those neat features? Wow,
that's surprising and nice to hear...Very nice! I really need to do
something with Plus.
M+ have much more pool space. You have disk caching. Preallocated I/O packets. Disk I/O optimization. The capability for multiple paths to disks. Memory handling is different, and you normally don't have many memory partitions which you need to try to optimize space wise. You have split I/D space and supervisor mode, which lots of programs use, resulting in much less overlaying for many tasks...
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
Back in the day, in a galaxy far far away, I was system manager of a site that used TMS-11, a DEC product for newspaper/graphics arts production.
Among a lot of other DEC gear most people have never heard of, we used VT/61 and VT/62 terminals.
They indeed were block mode terminals, but could be used in VT52 mode by setting a switch on the motherboard. That made them work like a normal serial terminal.
Sorry, I got rid of my hardware manuals for these a long time ago.
I do recall that they were very popular at newspaper sites, since the area on them on the right side reserved for the wave graphics option was large enough and easily accessible enough to hold a fifth of whiskey, which was an important feature at a lot of newspaper sites.
-----Original Message----- From: Bob Armstrong
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 7:36 PM
To: hecnet at update.uu.se
Subject: [HECnet] VT-62?
What can be done (non-destructive suggestions only, please) with a
VT-62? This is NOT a VT52 (although it looks like one). The VT62 is a
block mode terminal that, I think, actually speaks DDCMP. AFAIK it's
incapable of being a plain ASCII terminal unless there's some hack I'm
unaware of.
Right now the only thing I can think of is to part it out as spares
for my VT52. I have two of the latter and it looks like at least some
of the major assemblies - CRT, keyboard, power supply - are identical.
I hate to do that, though, if there's a better use for it.
---
Bob
Hello!
And most of you wonder why I'm still interested in finding a (or any
of them) PDT-11 units. There's something about them that makes me
think of the phrase cute.
-----
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."
On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 9:04 PM, John Wilson <wilson at dbit.com> wrote:
From: Bob Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com>
What can be done (non-destructive suggestions only, please) with a
VT-62? This is NOT a VT52 (although it looks like one). The VT62 is a
block mode terminal that, I think, actually speaks DDCMP. AFAIK it's
incapable of being a plain ASCII terminal unless there's some hack I'm
unaware of.
Have you tried it? I had a VT62 on my PDT-11/150 in college and I know
there was supposed to be a block mode, but it also worked fine as just a
VT52 clone, but with a speaker for keyclick/^G instead of a clacker, ESC T
switches you to reverse video and ESC U switches you back, and after column
72 there are tabs at every column. Other than that it's exactly a VT52 IIRC.
No idea if mine had been jumpered or had the ROMs switched or anything
to make it so normal. I bought it from an ex-DEC-employee (DEC dumped
a lot of the PDTs to their own employees) and I suppose it's possible
he got a special version.
John Wilson
D Bit
sampsa <sampsa at mac.com>
mobile +358 40 7208932
On 28 Sep 2013, at 03:14, Bob Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com> wrote:
On 2013-09-27 18:09, Dave McGuire wrote:
I might actually have a spare one of those, strangely enough.
My VT-180 will love you forever!
Might just wire my CBM 128D into the DECserver in Finland :)
It's not a Robin but it's old-skool.
sampsa
What type of connection? Serial? If you jumper 2 and 3 and type do you get anything?
Ian
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 27, 2013, at 6:12 PM, Bob Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com> wrote:
On 2013-09-27 18:04, John Wilson wrote:
Have you tried it?
Yes - as far as I can tell it does nothing. The cursor blinks and one or two of the status LEDs are on (forget which ones, sorry) but other than that nothing I do seems to get any response out of it. Maybe mine's broken?
---
Bob
---
Filter service subscribers can train this email as spam or not-spam here: http://my.email-as.net/spamham/cgi-bin/learn.pl?messageid=06C5F66427DB11E3A…
On 2013-09-27 18:09, Dave McGuire wrote:
I might actually have a spare one of those, strangely enough.
My VT-180 will love you forever!
I know I have a spare VT1xx cover,
I've got a regular VT100 cover, but the cutouts aren't right for the extra boards in the Robin.
Bob
On 2013-09-27 18:04, John Wilson wrote:
Have you tried it?
Yes - as far as I can tell it does nothing. The cursor blinks and one or two of the status LEDs are on (forget which ones, sorry) but other than that nothing I do seems to get any response out of it. Maybe mine's broken?
---
Bob
On 09/27/2013 09:07 PM, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Probably. Speaking of terminals, I would LOVE to get my hands on a
working VT180..
You could maybe talk me out of one for the right swap, maybe, ....
I've also got a Robin (don't tell Sampsa!) but it's missing the
plastic cover that goes over the back of the card cage. Would you have
an extra one of those? I'll swap you a VT62 for one (you pay the
shipping :-)
I might actually have a spare one of those, strangely enough. I know
I have a spare VT1xx cover, but I'm not sure which submodel it's for. I
will have to dig for it. Keep after me about it when you think of it.
Doesn't interfere with the functionality, but I like my stuff to look
good :-)
Same here.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
On 2013-09-27 17:52, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 09/27/2013 08:48 PM, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Probably. Speaking of terminals, I would LOVE to get my hands on a working VT180..
You could maybe talk me out of one for the right swap, maybe, ....
I've also got a Robin (don't tell Sampsa!) but it's missing the plastic cover that goes over the back of the card cage. Would you have an extra one of those? I'll swap you a VT62 for one (you pay the shipping :-)
Doesn't interfere with the functionality, but I like my stuff to look good :-)
--
Bob
From: Bob Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com>
What can be done (non-destructive suggestions only, please) with a
VT-62? This is NOT a VT52 (although it looks like one). The VT62 is a
block mode terminal that, I think, actually speaks DDCMP. AFAIK it's
incapable of being a plain ASCII terminal unless there's some hack I'm
unaware of.
Have you tried it? I had a VT62 on my PDT-11/150 in college and I know
there was supposed to be a block mode, but it also worked fine as just a
VT52 clone, but with a speaker for keyclick/^G instead of a clacker, ESC T
switches you to reverse video and ESC U switches you back, and after column
72 there are tabs at every column. Other than that it's exactly a VT52 IIRC.
No idea if mine had been jumpered or had the ROMs switched or anything
to make it so normal. I bought it from an ex-DEC-employee (DEC dumped
a lot of the PDTs to their own employees) and I suppose it's possible
he got a special version.
John Wilson
D Bit
On 09/27/2013 08:55 PM, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Yeah, it's a pity, I'm a big fan of VT terminals and CP/M boxes, and this is both.
Dream system really :)
I share your affinities on all three counts...the first, the second,
and the combination.
Actually the DEC Rainbow looks pretty cool too, could run CP/M-86 and -80 plus use it in VT102 mode.
Neat, yes, but the VT180 is nicer IMO.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
On 28 Sep 2013, at 02:52, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On 09/27/2013 08:48 PM, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Probably. Speaking of terminals, I would LOVE to get my hands on a working VT180..
We know. ;)
CP/M + VT100 in one box = cool :)
Extremely.
You could maybe talk me out of one for the right swap, maybe, but
you're on the wrong side of the water and I'll not be packing up one of
these.
Yeah, it's a pity, I'm a big fan of VT terminals and CP/M boxes, and this is both.
Dream system really :)
Actually the DEC Rainbow looks pretty cool too, could run CP/M-86 and -80 plus use it in VT102 mode.
On 09/27/2013 08:51 PM, Bob Armstrong wrote:
They make use of a custom CPU, or perhaps just a state machine. Got
prints?
That's true of the VT52, however the logic in the VT62 is completely
different. I don't know anything about it, but just looking at the
logic board you can see that it's not even close to a 52. I've no idea
what's in the 62.
I am pretty sure the VT62 is "more of the same". No hardware in
common, but a similar overall architecture. I could be mistaken,
however, and would love to know more, but information about that model
is very tough to come by.
I suppose it's remotely possible that the VT131 speaks the same
protocol, and it's documented. One could try based on that...the worst
that could happen is that it won't work, right?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
On 09/27/2013 08:48 PM, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Probably. Speaking of terminals, I would LOVE to get my hands on a working VT180..
We know. ;)
CP/M + VT100 in one box = cool :)
Extremely.
You could maybe talk me out of one for the right swap, maybe, but
you're on the wrong side of the water and I'll not be packing up one of
these.
Also would love one of the ReGIS/SIXEL capable boxes too..
VT240, VT330, VT340. All are glorious, and all are here.
Too bad I'm travelling so much now, have to tone down the hardware collecting..
That's a problem that can be solved.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
On 2013-09-27 17:48, Dave McGuire wrote:
They make use of a custom CPU, or perhaps just a state machine. Got prints?
That's true of the VT52, however the logic in the VT62 is completely different. I don't know anything about it, but just looking at the logic board you can see that it's not even close to a 52. I've no idea what's in the 62.
--
Bob
On 09/27/2013 08:47 PM, Bob Armstrong wrote:
I would write something cool to take advantage of its strengths.
Got documentation on how to talk to it??
Sadly I do not. They make use of a custom CPU, or perhaps just a
state machine. Got prints?
It might be too smart for us :-)
Nonsense! B-)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
sampsa <sampsa at mac.com>
mobile +358 40 7208932
On 28 Sep 2013, at 02:45, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On 09/27/2013 08:43 PM, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Doesn't the VT-62 do graphics?
I'm pretty sure "not" - maybe you're thinking of a VT102?
VT102 doesn't do graphics either.
Maybe the two of you are thinking of the VT55 and VT125, respectively.
Probably. Speaking of terminals, I would LOVE to get my hands on a working VT180..
CP/M + VT100 in one box = cool :)
Also would love one of the ReGIS/SIXEL capable boxes too..
Too bad I'm travelling so much now, have to tone down the hardware collecting..
sampsa
On 2013-09-27 17:43, Dave McGuire wrote:
I would write something cool to take advantage of its strengths.
Got documentation on how to talk to it??
It might be too smart for us :-)
--
Bob
On 09/27/2013 08:43 PM, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Doesn't the VT-62 do graphics?
I'm pretty sure "not" - maybe you're thinking of a VT102?
VT102 doesn't do graphics either.
Maybe the two of you are thinking of the VT55 and VT125, respectively.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
