bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-01-12, 04:30:

I wonder if it's possible to do IRC from a terminal?

Yes. Just log into a host system an run what ever irc client is on there. You can also do this via serial port on an old system connected to newer system. Run terminal emulator program on the old system to log in to the host system. The link is old but gives you an idea of what can be done. http://www.sorgonet.com/8086/8088_linux_dumb_terminal/

My Windows 98 machine runs on a 32GB SD card which is always getting full. Due to the 128GB limit I see no point in putting something bigger in there for all of my games, because it still wouldn't be enough.

So I put OpenWRT on my router (TP-Link Archer C2700, really awesome device with two USB 3.0 ports) and set up a Samba share to an external 2TB USB drive.
After that, I mapped that drive as a network share. Amazingly, this works out of the box with Windows 98 and Windows 10 as long as I don't put in a password and set it up as a public share.

I did not expect this to be that easy. 2 terabytes on Windows 98 should last for a while. I can put all of my ISOs on there and mount them with Daemon Tools, saving as much space as possible.

I think I finished my Swan XT10 (8088 Turbo 10MHz).. got the floppy controller, Adlib, ATI VGA Wonder 16, and XT-IDE all installed and working. 😁

Fixed this floppy drive that wouldn't read disks by cleaning the head with a Q-Tip + isopropyl alcohol.

Tested a spare Dell branded 486 LPX motherboard. I got it cheap last year but never managed to get it working and didn't have time to investigate further.

Now that I have a spare 486DX CPU laying about, I dug out the board once again and tested it out. Same problem, a bunch of beeps and no POST.

I found the specs of the board online and what Dell system it originally came out of (a 486P) and thus finally figured out the problem - it wants FPM Parity SIMMs and I only have non-parity FPM & EDO SIMMs. So I've ordered some RAM from eBay and hopefully once that arrives I can test the board out and see how it compares to my other 486 board.

PTherapist wrote on 2020-01-12, 16:51:

Tested a spare Dell branded 486 LPX motherboard. I got it cheap last year but never managed to get it working and didn't have time to investigate further.

Now that I have a spare 486DX CPU laying about, I dug out the board once again and tested it out. Same problem, a bunch of beeps and no POST.

I found the specs of the board online and what Dell system it originally came out of (a 486P) and thus finally figured out the problem - it wants FPM Parity SIMMs and I only have non-parity FPM & EDO SIMMs. So I've ordered some RAM from eBay and hopefully once that arrives I can test the board out and see how it compares to my other 486 board.

I’m curious, always want to learn something “new”. Since I wasn’t much into the hardware things (my dad was) but more into software things, I have to ask... what are the differences between these two types of RAM and why it requires the former?

RAM with parity has 9 bits per byte. This way, it can detect single bit errors in RAM. Parity was used in the early days when RAM chips were not that reliable and also in computers aimed at professionals.

Hacked together a Y/C to S-Video (SVHS) cable from two old cables to add to my Commodore 64 AV cable so I can hook it up to my Dell 2001FP. Works just fine 😀 I added a 330 ohm resistor to the Chroma channel to make it a bit more compliant with the S-Video 'standard'. I did not do any comparisons with/without this resistor.

The Pi1541 hat arrived, I quickly soldered it together and wanted to use it, but my Raspberry Pi would just not boot after following the software instructions. I spent half an hour checking stuff, until I looked at the Pi itself. I was convinced I had a Raspberry Pi 3, but it's a 2B. *sigh* I feel a bit dumb. Now awaiting the arrival of a Raspberry Pi 3B.

Edited: typos, spelling mistakes

Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-01-12, 20:06:

Hacked together a Y/C to S-Video (SVHS) cable from two old cables to add to my Commodore 64 AV cable so I can hook it up to my D […]
Show full quote

Hacked together a Y/C to S-Video (SVHS) cable from two old cables to add to my Commodore 64 AV cable so I can hook it up to my Dell 2001FP. Works just fine 😀 I added a 330 ohm resistor to the Chroma channel to make it a bit more compliant with the S-Video 'standard'. I did not do any comparisons with/without this resistor.

The Pi1541 hat had arrives, I quickly soldered together and wanted to use it, but my Raspberry Pi would just not boot when following the software instructions. I spent half an hour checking stuff, until I looked at the Pi itself. I was convinced I had a Raspberry Pi 3, but it's a 2B. *sigh* I feel a bit dumb. Now awaiting the arrival of a Raspberry Pi 3B.

Oh damn! Btw I’ve been thinking about getting a Rock64 or LattePanda. I find myself very limited by what the rPi can offer.

derSammler wrote on 2020-01-12, 17:08:

RAM with parity has 9 bits per byte. This way, it can detect single bit errors in RAM. Parity was used in the early days when RAM chips were not that reliable and also in computers aimed at professionals.

Thanks!!

While digging thru my old cd disk collections looking for older motherboard driver cd's found my original FreeBSD v1.1 CD given me by sir Rod Grimes back in about 1996. Rod and a few others were the developers of FreeBSD and I got to work nights and weekends for him building P.Pro rack servers running FreeBSD that were shipped to various Universities. Am going to make an ISO and upload to Archive.org.

added: upped to Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/freebsd1.1june1994walnutcreek

oeuvre wrote on 2020-01-12, 14:22:

https://i.imgur.com/YZ4CVnem.jpg […]
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Fixed this floppy drive that wouldn't read disks by cleaning the head with a Q-Tip + isopropyl alcohol.

Nice system ! have you looked for a decent beige KB to match your nice Dell tower ?

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-01-12, 04:30:

I wonder if it's possible to do IRC from a terminal?

Yeah it is. Depending on your OS's age try something like irssi (newer) or ircii (older). I use irssi from a terminal window.

Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-01-12, 20:06:

Hacked together a Y/C to S-Video (SVHS) cable from two old cables to add to my Commodore 64 AV cable so I can hook it up to my D […]
Show full quote

Hacked together a Y/C to S-Video (SVHS) cable from two old cables to add to my Commodore 64 AV cable so I can hook it up to my Dell 2001FP. Works just fine 😀 I added a 330 ohm resistor to the Chroma channel to make it a bit more compliant with the S-Video 'standard'. I did not do any comparisons with/without this resistor.

That's a good idea. I might do something similar myself, I have a spare DIN cable that I can splice into S-Video & Audio outputs. I won't be adding the resistor though, as I'm going to get a LumaFix64 for my C64 instead.

I forgot to ask to Cyrix200+, why did he ordered a rPi 3B instead of a rPi 4? Much better than getting an outdated version.

bfcastello wrote on 2020-01-13, 13:23:

I forgot to ask to Cyrix200+, why did he ordered a rPi 3B instead of a rPi 4? Much better than getting an outdated version.

Pi1541 is not compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4, only with 3(B).

PTherapist wrote on 2020-01-13, 13:11:

<snip>

That's a good idea. I might do something similar myself, I have a spare DIN cable that I can splice into S-Video & Audio outputs. I won't be adding the resistor though, as I'm going to get a LumaFix64 for my C64 instead.

Yes, LumaFix64 also fixes this problem (and probably better since you can tweak the resistor value).

Horun wrote on 2020-01-13, 04:19:

oeuvre wrote on 2020-01-12, 14:22:

https://i.imgur.com/YZ4CVnem.jpg […]
Show full quote

Fixed this floppy drive that wouldn't read disks by cleaning the head with a Q-Tip + isopropyl alcohol.

Nice system ! have you looked for a decent beige KB to match your nice Dell tower ?

Not particularly... fine with this generic HP one as it is comfortable and does the job.

That reminds me I have a mechanical Dell keyboard that came with an Optiple GX110 I never got around to clean and retrobright.. It weighs a ton and has a very large footprint. It's also very yellow.

Went ahead and made the video cable for my Commodore 64 -

Now converts from 8-pin DIN to outputs for S-Video, Composite & Audio (L+R wired together for Dual Mono).

Just a quick rough job. Got my multimeter out to find out which wires went to which pin on the plug and then used the C64 video pinout to match them up. Almost made a mistake and wired it up backwards, but quickly discovered the error before I'd gotten too far.

I was going to buy a pre-made cable from eBay further down the line, so it's saved me about £14 for the time being. I may still do that in the future, but for now I have S-Video output at last. Even without the LumaFix64 the colours look great on my Plasma TV and all text & graphics are nice and sharp. The LumaFix64 will fix the banding when I get one in a couple of months time, but for now it is working & looking great!

PTherapist wrote on 2020-01-13, 16:50:

Went ahead and made the video cable for my Commodore 64 - […]
Show full quote

Went ahead and made the video cable for my Commodore 64 -

<snip>

Now converts from 8-pin DIN to outputs for S-Video, Composite & Audio (L+R wired together for Dual Mono).

<snip>

Just a quick rough job. Got my multimeter out to find out which wires went to which pin on the plug and then used the C64 video pinout to match them up. Almost made a mistake and wired it up backwards, but quickly discovered the error before I'd gotten too far.

I was going to buy a pre-made cable from eBay further down the line, so it's saved me about £14 for the time being. I may still do that in the future, but for now I have S-Video output at last. Even without the LumaFix64 the colours look great on my Plasma TV and all text & graphics are nice and sharp. The LumaFix64 will fix the banding when I get one in a couple of months time, but for now it is working & looking great!

Looks good! I bought my cable on eBay as soon as I got my C64, but I didn't do my homework well and ordered a Y/C and dual mono audio. I will probably mod it to add composite (if needed) and to ground the audio in.

I love this solution also: https://commodore4ever.net/products/a-v-breakout

Made this one 2 years ago for my C64. Has a 330Ohm resistor and audio noise reduction.