Questions - Universe/68, HP-9134A,VT420 composite video

[Joe R.]

At 06:06 AM 4/17/05 -0700, you wrote:
>I have a couple of questions - and requests for
>assistance - for some of the items I picked up this
>weekend from TCF. My other post to the list details
>what there are. Here goes:
>
>- HP 9134A: The unit is appears on the HPIB bus but
>doesn't identify itself correctly. From the HP64000
>side I get a 'NO DISC' error when I try to format it.

  I don't know about the 64000 but the HP9000 200s and 300s display a list
of drives during bootup. Does the 64000 do that and does it show the drive?
On a 200 or 300 if you press any key druing boot it will stop the system
from booting an OS but it will go through the search for drives and display
a list of drives and OSs. Defective drives will frequently fail to show up
in the list or will be reported as bad.  The list should look like this
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/hp-boot.htm>.

>I am trying to determine whether the light on the
>front of the ST506 inside should be on or not once the
>drive comes up to speed or whether it only comes on
>when that HBIB address is being accessed. Any hints ?

  Is this one of the old wide biege units or one of the newer square white
ones? If it's a white one, disconnect it from the computer and then turn it
on. It will run a selftest and the fault light should go off within about
40 seconds. If it says on then the unit is bad! The access light will blink
when the unit is accessed and I THINK it blinks during the selftest. If the
unit passes selftest then the drive is almost certainly good and your fault
is elsewhere. I don't know if the old biege unit has the same lights and
operates the same way or not.  let me know what you find out.


>
>- Universe/68: Operating system for the Charles River
>Data Systems Universe/68 anyone ? I understand these
>machines used to run UNOS. It would be fun to try to
>boot this thing. Also - any background information on
>the machine itself would be of interest.
>
>- I'd like to use a surplus VT420 as the display for
>the DEC 350 Pro I picked up. This will entail
>identifing a point on the VT420 schematic where I can
>inject the composite video signal from the 350. So I
>need the VT420 schematic. Does anyone on the list have
>one ?
>
>- manual or operating notes for the Zia Tech ZT 488 ?
>I can probably figure this one out but documentation
>is always welcome.

   I have a couple of those cards and I'm pretty sure that I have the
manual and software SOMEWHERE but I have no idea if I can find it. If you
ind them from another source, let me know.

>
>Thanks as always for the list's help.
>
>Regards,
>
>Dave
>
>
>		
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