Re: USB to serial mouse adapter - Raspberry Pi

Posted on 2019-02-20, 07:31

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So while mulling over the fact that the only serial pointing devices I have are trackballs, I came across this program for Raspberry Pi that acts as an active converter to let you use a USB mouse on a serial port. I'd considered doing exactly this a year or so ago but realized I'd need to wire up …

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Re: Gravis Stinger for DOS?

Posted on 2019-02-20, 07:25

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah actually a terminal program should do about the same thing. You mentioned you have source code for the Linux drivers for the joypad. That doesn't have all the data you need? Not really, because it uses functions in the Linux io libraries. I've tried following the source code, but it's full of …

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Re: Dual VGA displays on 286/486?

Posted on 2019-02-20, 07:18

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Okay, I was watching 8-Bit Guy talk about building his dream computer on YouTube today, and he talked about the "Gameduino". Now this looks like something I might could use to talk to a 2nd, built-in display on a 286 or 486... The question still is... how would I talk to it from the computer? Here's …

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Re: Getting into the Amiga: need some help

Posted on 2019-02-20, 06:58

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You don't have to be a fan boi to know thats not a comparison. Aside from the obvious computer/console difference, Mario paint was no competition to Deluxe paint. :dead: Deluxe paint? :lol: Who uses that in 2019? Looking at the games, the Super Nintendo has great 16-bit 2D (side scroller) games, …

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DOjS - Javascript for MSDOS

Posted on 2019-02-14, 10:49

by

by Hamby

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

DEC HL on Twitter announced the release of 0.5 of DOjS, his MIT licensed (open source) Javascript interpreter for MSDOS and FreeDOS. https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/02/11/dojs-a-new-javascript-interpreter-for-ms-dos-javascript-msdos-retrocomputing-vintagecomputing/ I've no connection to the project …

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Re: Retro-file server?

Posted on 2019-02-14, 10:44

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

just posting this here because the subject of web browsing came up... I'll post it in the right section after posting it here. Apparently a version of Javascript for DOS, open source, is in the works... DOjS https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/02/11/dojs-a-new-javascript-interpreter-for-ms-dos-javascript …

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486 system FreeDOS or MSDOS 6.22?

Posted on 2019-02-13, 10:11

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't know whether I should post this under hardware or software, so I'll post it here and if I'm wrong... sorry :( On my (long) list of projects is building my 486 DX2-66 system. I'm going to put an SVGA card (probably Trident) and Voodoo 3D accelerator card in it, along with a soundblaster and …

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Re: Retro-file server?

Posted on 2019-02-13, 09:50

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did a quick search on DuckDuckGo for "DilloDOS"... The... uhm... more reasonable?... results were things like "Dillards"... the less reasonable ones... referenced sex toys. Just an FYI...

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Re: Retro-file server?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 10:04

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The hardware setup would work. Since you're set on using wifi, which will be the bottleneck if the old computers aren't, you don't have to worry about USB performance etc of the Pi. Networking old OS:es will never be secure, but as long as they're not exposed to the internet you'll be fine. New …

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Re: Retro-file server?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 09:58

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you use a rPi, why not hook up a silent big hdd instead of these old ones? Because I have the drives, and a ZeroW would cost little more than the $10, at least initially. Gotta go cheap now, since work is cutting hours now and my already limited funds are even more limited :depressed: Still, …

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Retro-file server?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 08:18

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a couple of old HDs from my old HP laptop, 100gb and 160gb iirc. I've used them as external drives for my Acer netbook. It just occurred to me... could I connect them to a Raspberry Pi ZeroW, and use them as a file server for my retro computers? This will include everything from an HP 200LX …

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Old CRT in retro build?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 07:47

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Awhile back I got to thinking of building a custom Mac-style, PS/1-style or Compaq 425-style case with like baby AT or even itx motherboard. My first thought was to use an LCD display, but then I came across this on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-230DB4-9-Inch-Sony-CRT/302745658377? …

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Re: Dual VGA displays on 286/486?

Posted on 2019-02-06, 14:48

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm planning to build a 286 and a 486 system; I've got the motherboards and most of the parts I need. I intend building custom cases. At work, they were throwing out cardboard product features that had built-in LCD displays, and my boss let me have them. One is 9", one is 6" and one is 5" (ro maybe …

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Dual VGA displays on 286/486?

Posted on 2019-02-05, 20:23

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I know on old x86 to 486 systems you can have both a VGA and a mono adapter and use two monitors. But is there any way to have two VGA displays (showing different content) on a 286-486 system?

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Bisqwit: Replacing BIOS in a ThinkPad with GPL CoreBoot (former LinuxBios)

Posted on 2019-01-21, 02:11

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I thought some people here might find this video from last september interesting. Bisqwit tried to install a pcie network card into his older Thinkpad, and runs into problems. So he reflashes the bios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUaDkQFD7FE

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Re: Socket 3 boards with PCI - Worth it?

Posted on 2019-01-17, 22:19

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I patiently waited a year (or more...) to find a socket 3 486 with ISA and PCI slots. Finally got it, a 486/DX66. With ram Why? Because of the Voodoo 2 3D accelerator card I have. (yeah, I know I could just stick a PCI 2D/3D SVGA card in it). I was going to put it in my lunchbox case, but I couldn't …

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Re: Could you get Windows98 to run on any computer if you have enough PCI addon cards?

Posted on 2019-01-17, 22:03

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I may need to do this. Once my 286 is built. And my 486 is built. And my K6-2 300mhz is turned into Win 98SE. (and once my phone is built, but that's not retro so, nevermind). The idea of running Win98 on modern hardware makes me drool. For at least a decade I've wanted a version of DOS (FreeDOS, …

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Re: Gravis Stinger for DOS?

Posted on 2019-01-16, 04:55

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I doubt probing with a multimeter is gonna help you much. If it's a 9 pin serial connector would expect the joystick gets 5V power from one one the pins (pin 9?) and has a ground connection pin 5. That much a multimeter will tell you It's then gonna send asynchonous serial data byte(s) to …

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Gravis Stinger for DOS?

Posted on 2019-01-15, 12:26

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've a couple old Gravis Stinger serial port joysticks. A long long time ago I was going to try developing a driver for them for Irix. Even got in touch with Gravis, who pointed me at some Linux drivers, but that was... 20 years ago. Well, I found some source code for a Linux driver, again, only …

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Re: Speaker issues

Posted on 2019-01-15, 06:18

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you very much!

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