very old computers...

924guy wrote: funny, when i moved to florida i was packing and i left my laptop case and and old Osbourne luggage type computer that i had collected someplace (might not of been an actual Osbourne, but close enough..looked like this one, but a slightly bigger screen model:

You probably had an Osborne Executive. I've got one in my parents basement that my uncle used when he sold insurance.

About ten years ago I put together the most badass TRUE 486 I possibly could to play my favourite old DOS games on. It had an AMD 486/120 running at 160(!) MHz, something like 72 MB of RAM, a Gravis Ultrasound PnP AND a Soundblaster AWE32 with 8MB memory each, a Matrox Millennium with a Voodoo 3D accellerator and some other stuff that I've forgotten. I don't think it's possible to build a better computer on the 486 architecture. I still have it, but it went into storage when I moved and now I play my old DOS games on an emulator.

I also have an old Thinkpad 365ED which I think is a Cyrix 486/100. Those things are tough! The clamshell is made out of real metal, but it's still smaller and lighter than most laptops made before about 2005. It still works perfectly and even holds ninety minutes of battery life, which is ninety minutes more than my ca. 2003 Compaq that is failing in every way possible. It's also in storage. When I get it out again I'm going to replace the 500MB hard drive with a 4GB solid-state drive just to see what it can do. I'll bet it'll outperform anything running Vista with that setup.

I've even got the family's Commodore 64s packed away along with some spares & bits I've picked up over the years. Those ate so many hours of my childhood I'm going to have to set 'em back up again someday. I hope the disks are still good.

I used to have a lot more interesting/oddball computer stuff, like a complete Silicon Graphics Indy and some Sun workstations but I got rid of most of them when I realized I would probably never use them. It's an annoyingly bulky hobby, not unlike cars.

J

486 is old? You guys make me laugh.

I still have a RUNNING IBM XT. Dos commands, green screen, 5 1/4" floppy drive, and we are especially proud of the 128k memory.

It has been running without fail since 1984.

not likely. most used a priority cable to connect to the controller integrated to the system board. DILYSI Dave wrote: FYI, sometimes old laptops are best for dedicated EFI stuff. I know that on my Zdyne, I have very few problems with an old P1 uploading via Serial port, but my buddy with a late model whiz-bang can't upload worth a damn through the USB to serial adapter, and the laptop is too new to have a real serial port.

All my pre-obdII projects I use old laptops for.

All you need is a working com port and something that can run DOS.

If you have a handful of them, I would bolt them in and use as digital dashes/ data logging machines.

Like mentioned, winaldl works great with dos/pre-98 machines. Freescan is another GM program, Dcal and Chem great for FI mopars. I can not run winaldl on one of my newer machines successfully. Old stuff is great.

I have no experience with standalones such as MS, but I have used old stuff for datalogging and prom burning. If you think about it, the old OTC4000 machines did not have much processing power, just use a laptop for the same thing with a prettier display (think Fast and Furious digital dash)

Way back when the school board decided to replace the Apple II's in the computer lab at school I decided to keep several of them. I strung some coax around the school so I could put monitors in the hall outside the office, in the cafeteria, and in the main hall on the second floor. Just using audio splitters I could run 4 monitors from one computer.

Then I wrote an Apple Basic program to display messages. We used it for announcments and to show the schedule when we had late starts or early dismissals. Before I retired in 94 I had to replace one of the monitors otherwise the setup ran fine.

Last year all the retired faculty was invited back to an open house for the new addition to the school. I was very supprised to find the system still running. The current lab teacher told me that he has replaced another monitor and had to use one of the spare computers as the original died. He said the his biggest worry was finding more floppy disks since they only seem to last 2 or 3 years.

ive had brief thoughts that if i found an old sun workstation or similar unibody type machine, id gut it, put in an lcd and itx mobo..think it would be a fun project and pretty neat..

I still have my first computer and it worked that last time I fired it up.

924guy wrote: i received a few notes about the stuff i have in my garage, ill get back to you guys as soon as dig it all out and see whats left in tact.. there should be at least one think pad 760, a 380, a huge docking station for the 760 (kinda cool!) a non op zenith 286 green screen lap top, assorted accessories, maybe more still in boxes......

Serial port, my software lives and dies by serial ports.

My kingdom for a blasted serial port.

I sold a PDP11 on eBay a few years ago. Let's see you guys beat that one.

I had an Apple //c with 1 MB RAM and a LCD screen. I was portable before portable was cool. I used to take it to sea with me.

I traded a PC XT for my sail boat around 1998.

Yeah, a serial port is a good thing. I've been using pentops with serial ports like the Fujitsu 1600 for my Megasquirt projects. I now have an Acer One with no serial port, but I got a USB adapter and I need to see if I can get that to work with the Sportster's Megasquirt.

Dr. Hess wrote: I sold a PDP11 on eBay a few years ago. Let's see you guys beat that one.

Neato. There's a tape drive that I believe works with the pdp-11 down in my basement.

As for beating that, all I can offer is an old western union teletype. I don't remember the model number, but it's much older than the 33 we got rid of years ago.

I got rid of the TI-99 and 286 when I moved. Sold the 386 years ago but still have a few 486's and a Pentium 600 up in the attic. If I remember right, 2 of the 4 486's still work. About 2 weeks ago I cleaned up my computer desk and packed up all the floppy disks and old manuals and stored them in the attic. Included were MS-DOS 5 and 6.22, Windows 3.1, 95 and 98, Office 6(?) on 25 3.5 disks and 2 other newer version, Wordperfect and Wordstar plus more. Still have a dot-matrix printer along with a couple ink jets and one laser printer in the attic also. Someday I'll donate it all to a museum.

I'm looking for a wide carriage dot matrix printer, like an Epson MX-100. I had one and threw it away when I moved 9 years ago. If you ever want to print out a manifold flange from your CAD work, that's what to use. Taping paper together from a laserjet just isn't the same. Plus, you can leave it for a year and it will print just fine, first try, unlike a inkjet which will require a new $50 cartridge.

And, I have this thing some of you may have heard of. It's called a "Typewriter." Maybe you saw one in a museum. Anyway, damned if I can find a ribbon for it. Coronamatic. Office*, Wally world, etc. don't carry them.

My VIC-20 wandered around after I was done with it - I gave it to a kid to learn how to use computers. I've lost track of it, but I still have some of the tapes of my original programs. I remember having to flip that thing into different graphics modes in order to be able to draw circles, etc onscreen. Growing up programming BASIC sure comes in handy in today's world. I need to get my hands on a VIC to see if I can still run those programs.

In slightly related news, they have a bombe up and running at Bletchley Park, and they're working on Colossus!

Hal wrote: He said the his biggest worry was finding more floppy disks since they only seem to last 2 or 3 years.

My first job out of engineering school was at a company that built the recording heads for 8" floppy drives; my department built the manufacturing and test equipment that was used out on the factory floor. A typical tester would have a fixture where the operator would plug in a head, and then record and read back data off a floppy disk. We usually set them up to record and read back on the inner and outer tracks of the floppy. The testers would be in use two shifts a day, five days a week, with the heads continually writing and recording to those two tracks on the floppy. The operators were supposed to replace the floppy every so often before they wore out but they usually forgot. As a result, every few months we'd get a call that a tester quit working, and it usually turned out that the floppy hadn't been changed out in a while - those two tracks would have all the oxide worn clean away so you could see right through the floppy.

We used Intel 8080 processors to control that test equipment, programmed in assembly language. An interesting aside is that the same company used to build tape heads for 8 track tape players (their parts were used in the tape decks in most GM cars in the 1970s) and as a result we had tons of 8 track stuff laying around the lab. So, we used them for loading the control programs into the testers - there was an 8 track player installed in the front panel of each tester, and the programs were recorded on 8 track tape cartridges. :)

Back on topic, I still have a Mac IIsi computer I bought in about 1991 to replace my original Mac. I haven't used it for more than ten years, but for the heck of it I plugged it in a few weeks ago and it started right up just as if I'd used it the day before.

so i dug out some of the stuff, so far the tally is:

3 thinkpad 760's, all working, though i have to find the hard drive from one, and theres actually one battery that still holds a charge! two docking stations for above. one thinkpad 755c that wont boot and it pretty beat up that also has a special dual battery charger that goes with it, one gateway laptop with a bad inverter (need to check further but should boot to an external monitor, one compaq laptop that i havent checked yet, and bunch of accessories that i need to sort though to figure out what goes with what laptop. also at least two old printers , a scsi scanner that i have no idea where it came from, and a bunch of pci, and older cards i havent sorted through yet... theres also two towers that are slated for donation to some kids at the school... oh, and one kiosk pc with a touchscreen , probably a 300mhz..with i think four serial ports. still might be more... maybe i should just start a museum in my garage...

Dr. Hess wrote: I'm looking for a wide carriage dot matrix printer, like an Epson MX-100.

Look on craigslist for the following industrial units: Genicom, Printronix, Printek (Probably the best).

Very High Speed, Very Reliable.

example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PRINTEK-FORMSPRO-4300-HIGH-SPEED-DOT-MATRIX-WORKING_W0QQitemZ360120911116QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCOMP_Printers?hash=item360120911116&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1240|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

Or check with the Jawas, I think the last one of those I saw, 3p0 Quagmire had just finished having sex with it........

Chris Rummel

Unless somebody on here has an abacus, I may be the winner. A perfect Sterling Professional Grade Slide Rule from the '50s!! In the original sheath, complete with instructions. Beat that, geeks! Should I e-bay this thing?

Comadore 64 laptop

I still have a Timex-Sinclair. Including operator's manual, tape backup and "exectutive" tape.

A while ago, I put it in a glass display case at our college and a lot of the older tech-nerds knew what it was right away. The younger kids had no clue.

Mr. Sinclair went on to build some weird "cars".

cwh wrote: Unless somebody on here has an abacus, I may be the winner. A perfect Sterling Professional Grade Slide Rule from the '50s!! In the original sheath, complete with instructions. Beat that, geeks! Should I e-bay this thing?

A friend and I taught ourselves how to use slide rules in high school in the 80's. They're such a fascinating tool and good brain exercise. I brought one to the final exam for my third year physics class in university and my prof just about went into a seizure with excitement.

cwh wrote: Unless somebody on here has an abacus, I may be the winner. A perfect Sterling Professional Grade Slide Rule from the '50s!! In the original sheath, complete with instructions. Beat that, geeks! Should I e-bay this thing?

I have my grand dad's slide rule. I'ts ivory.

Yeah, I have a Timex Sinclair in the attic.
My Commodore got crushed in a move. I used to carry it in a briefcase with a 5" portable AC/DC TV and the external 5.25" floppy drive - sort of a homemadeSX-64.

Slide rule can't compete with one of these for coolness, ever.

Hands up if you learned about the Curta in "Pattern Recognition".