What's the shiniest part of your bus today?

[dan-fox]

Originally Posted by Rusty

What? No love for CP/M ? I used to be a Kaypro dealer.

Oh, Lord! Now THAT is in the Wayback Machine!

I once built a null modem cable from a recipe I found in Dr. Dobbs, and used it to move files from a DEC PDP8 to a CP/M machine, where I massaged the contents using Nevada FORTRAN to render billing data. And that was when I was a member of the Temperature Control Shop of the Physical Plant at UM College Park! Dem wuz some days, I tell ya.

That CP/M machine had a 12MB external hard drive the size of a dictionary. I'll stop now.

[cadillackid]

i worked on a lot of Barber-Coleman Network 8000 Temperature control systems from the 80s...

how about this? SERIAL communicatiomns (RS232) is *STILL* the preferred method from hotel property management systems (PMS) t operipheral gear like phone systems.. why?? its SECURE! no sensitive data.. not online.. and no young hacker has a clue as to what it is..
-Christopher

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by dan-fox

Oh, Lord! Now THAT is in the Wayback Machine!

I once built a null modem cable

Luggables. Lol.



VAX/VMS made me some good coin. Stuff was heavy. Absolute beasts. Everything had a custom serial cable. How 'bout them line printers, tho?

[URL="

[brokedown]

I love those ground pounder printers. My friend had one called a Silent Scribe and it was 80 pounds of metal and the print head was so heavy it would shake the house like an earthquake while sounding like a jackhammer... And I'm only exaggerating slightly! It printed really fast, and of course supported raw line printing, no messing around with that postscript crap when all you want to do is print a strongly worded letter to mail to the newspaper complaining about the price of coffee.

PS: VMS lives on if you don't mind buying Itanium!

[dan-fox]

We had an LA36 PrintWriter? LineWriter? Smaller and slower than that one, but ate boxes of 14" greenbar all the same.

I went from Phys Plant to Aero Engineering - the Wind Tunnel! That was a cool job. Among other things, we had a 2-1/2 axis NC machine that was a kitted retrofit to our Bridgeport vertical mill. Stepper motors, belt drives, a box of electronics (drivers for the steppers), and one of those luggables to control it all. It really pissed off the professional engineering staff (2 WWII veterans aero e's) that the kid with the ponytail could make that thing dance and sing and they couldn't.

Come to think of it, that computer/electronics interface was a 25 pin Centronics cable because it needed to bring lots of lines up and down in synchrony to enable quadrature stepping. Cool stuff.

But not the shiniest part of my bus. Sorry for the threadjacking.

[cadillackid]

I had an IBM PC Luggable... then thought I was the cats meow when i got a Lunch-Box with a 'plasma screen', trying to remember who made the lunchbox.. i think it was a Compaq.
-Christopher

well i think this thread went from shiny stuff to way-back-when-it-used-to-be-shiny stuff

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by dan-fox

Come to think of it, that computer/electronics interface was a 25 pin Centronics cable because it needed to bring lots of lines up and down in synchrony to enable quadrature stepping. Cool stuff.

Spoonfeed. I still have a 2 1/2 hp Tree CNC knee mill (paper tape) that has that 'upgrade'. Memory is so small, you need to give it tiny bites or it'll choke.

[INanMT-Bus]

Well since this is totally off track anyway...

If it makes you sage geeks (and I use that as a term of endearment, lol) feel a tiny bit better, dot matrix line printers are STILL in use in "modern" manufacturing facilities on a daily basis. One of my primary roles is to set up parts pick sheets to spew out of one of these:

FormsPro 5000 Dot Matrix Printers

[Gatorbait]

Just cleaned up the engine bay a week or so ago...

IMG_6682 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

IMG_6696 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

IMG_6683 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

IMG_6698 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Gatorbait

Just cleaned up the engine bay a week or so ago...

IMG_6682 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

IMG_6696 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

IMG_6683 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

IMG_6698 by asdf asdf, on Flickr

that looks like a new bus!!! what did you use? I should do that to both of mine!
-Christopher

[brokedown]

Officially feeling bad about how clean my engine isn't...

[Rusty]

I scored some doors from Lowes- From $83 down to $5




Also painting is shiny, but dark and rainy today Sneak preview...

[brokedown]

Nice $5 door! If I ever get a full size bus I hope I can score like that.

I've got a little upgrade project I might get to today that involves my inverter, a jig saw, and my dashboard. No promises yet though!

[Gatorbait]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

that looks like a new bus!!! what did you use? I should do that to both of mine!
-Christopher

Basically follow this, he explains it well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRSoRkM8GcM

[dan-fox]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Spoonfeed. I still have a 2 1/2 hp Tree CNC knee mill (paper tape) that has that 'upgrade'. Memory is so small, you need to give it tiny bites or it'll choke.

Paper tape! 7 bit Baudot. You win.

[Jolly Roger]

Originally Posted by M1031A1

Got tired of seeing the world @ 52 mph... Too many safety hazards at that speed.......

M

I get to see the world at 49 right now.
Yeah some new rear gears are in order for me also to get rid of my 6.50's

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Rusty

What? No love for CP/M ? I used to be a Kaypro dealer.

If I run AI on a VM, is it real?

Digital Research rocked!!

I remember my Kaypro. First computer I ever owned with a hard drive. 5MB HARD DRIVE!!! "I'll never fill that up!!!"

[brokedown]

So I hate to dominate this thread with my own parts but I have a new shiniest part today! Wednesday it was summer, Thursday it was fall, it's Friday so of course it is now winter in eastern Idaho! And at some point since February, my glow plug relay died.

Presenting, the Napa GPR109 relay! Under 30 dollars at your neighborhood Napa store.



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[cadillackid]

does your bus start now?
-Christopher

[brokedown]

The real test will be tomorrow morning... I got it started eventually this morning by bridging the line with a wrench. Is still not warm out but the bus is warm enough that it starts right up anyway.

Here is the old relay btw.


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