Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU!GTHEALL From: GTHEALL@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (George A. Theall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro Subject: Rainbow EchoMail Digest Message-ID: <9010120244.AA21830@remote.dccs.upenn.edu> Date: 12 Oct 90 03:14:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 318 Rainbow EchoMail Digest Oct 11, 1990 In this issue: RAINBOW PARTS NEEDED RE: QUANTUM DRIVES ON RBO (2 messages) RE: EMULATORS QUANTUM DRIVES ON RBOW RE: ZMODEM ON RAINBOW KERMIT RAINBOW POWER SUPPLIES RAINBOW INFO WANTED: RAINBOW 100+ RAINBOW CHARACTER GENERAT Articles posted to either INFO-DEC-MICRO or comp.sys.dec.micro are currently gatewayed to the Rainbow Echo on FidoNet. You do not need to take special action to respond to articles in these digests. Please send reports of problems or suggestions for improvement of this digest to GTHEALL@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (Internet). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 10-04-90 (23:36) To: ALL Subject: RAINBOW PARTS NEEDED From: BILL ROGERS I JUST PICKED UP A RAINBOW MODEL 100B. FROM WHAT I SEE THE UNIT WORKS GREAT! ONLY ONE PROBLEM, I NEED A KEYBOARD! ANYBODY OUT THERE KNOW WHERE I CAN PICK ONE UP IN GOOD WORKING ORDER FOR A GREAT PRICE (CHEAP!) ANY INFO WOULD BE APPRECIATED. I CAN BE REACHED AT 438-1320 BEFORE 4 PM. BILL ROGERS - --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Glacier Peak Rainbow, Bellevue, WA - 206/644-8431 (1:343/3.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-06-90 (00:22) To: MARC MCCUNE Subject: RE: QUANTUM DRIVES ON RBO From: CARL HOUSEMAN re: any & all hard drives workable on Rainbow Well, since you asked, just off the top of my head... Drive Size DEC Name Mfr Mfr's Name 20 m RD31 Seagate ST-225 32 m RD52 Quantum Q540 40 m RD32 Seagate ST-251 67 m RD53 Micropolis ??? So old I forget!!! Anyway, that's a start. Probably somebody else can come up with the ones I've left out. As for personal experience, I've used both Seagate drives with success. - --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-06-90 (11:07) To: MARIO LAZZARIN Subject: RE: EMULATORS From: BILL MAYHEW The best public-domain terminal emulator product (and I am using "best" here STRICTLY in the sense of its TERMINAL EMULATION capabilities, including keyboard support -- I am NOT factoring file-transfers in, particularly the issue of "diversity of protocols" or "support for the 'best' protocol") is probably Kermit 3.xx. For a commercial product I like the Reflection series from Walker Richer and Quinn. Both of them support full keyboard remapping. Both can run on LAT circuits as well as serisl ports. WRQ's products are well-supported commercial products, and they have ReGIS graphics support in some of their products (which Kermit does not have and probably never will have). They also support a wider variety of protocols than Kermit does, have PC-to-host backup capabilities, etc. etc. -Bill P.S. We're talking about running this on a PC or compatible, right... not on a Rainbow? - --- QM v1.00 * Origin: Still Servicing the Rainbow - Maybee Forever (1:101/1.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-06-90 (09:09) To: MARC MCCUNE Subject: QUANTUM DRIVES ON RBOW From: DON MARQUART > Does any have any knowledge of using a Quantum 10 or 40 meg hard drive > on a rainbow? If memory serves the Quantum Q540 is listed by DEC as the RD-53 and will work in the Rainbow with the proper cables and WUTIL formatting utility. The formatted capacity is a little over 32 meg. Don't know about the 10 meg. Hope this helps some Marc... - --- ConfMail V4.00 * Origin: Club Micro * CompuMatch (303)973-8578 (1:104/888) ------------------------------ Date: 10-06-90 (20:46) To: ALL Subject: RE: ZMODEM ON RAINBOW From: FRANK ZSITVAY In article <984.270DD3EF.@techbks1.FIDONET.ORG> Chris.Ryan@f138.n102.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Chris Ryan) writes: > > CR> Some months ago I had some troubles with Zmodem transfers >Rainbow (Supplied by Bill Bird, a local sysop) to test it on. Although >registration of DSZ is no big hairy deal, sending him a Rainbow to work with >IS. With our non-8250 compatible UART, I can't think of any other way he >could do the porting to the Rainbow. > >Anybody else have any observations to add? (or possibly a spare Rainbow to >donate to the cause???? 8^) ). > i've got a spare rainbow i'd donate to the cause, provided someone come up with a monitor for it. and i'm a local call to Telegodzilla, too. (that's chuck's board, isn't it??) - -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - one of these days i'll get it right... Version 2 of anything is usually the version that works. - --- QM v1.00 * Origin: TECHbooks One, Fido Gate to techbook (503) 644-8135 (1:105/369.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-08-90 (00:33) To: ALL Subject: KERMIT From: PAUL ROBINSON I have a copy of the sources to an MS-DOS Kermit written in Assembly language. My computer is an IBM Klone, so if someone wants it I can copy it onto 160K 8 Sector Single Sided Diskettes so it can be read for anyone that wants them. I believe it will take 3 diskettes. If anyone is interested in a copy they can do one of two things: 1. Send me 3 formatted disks and return postage (or) 2. Mail me $2 to cover disks and return postage and nothing else; This is the ASM sources so you need to have an assembler to use them, and they are the "generic" MS-DOS. I'm making this available for those who might want them. Also, I'll post them to this board in the next few days so if you are local to the Washington, DC suburb of Silver Spring, MD you can pick them up for a local call. The archives will take over 400K so you will need a hard disk unless you just want them to read them. If you can't download them, mail me one of the above requests to: Paul Robinson P O Box 70970 Washington, DC 20024-0970 Be sure to give your address and state you want MS-Kermit ASM sources on 160 K disk. The same offer applies to a set of Kermit sources which I have in Turbo Pascal (I think it is a Version 4 TPU though) and a Kermit which is written in C. If you want any of the others, ask also; I think that either one should fit on one disk, so if you also want those, toss in another disk or 50c additionally. - --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-08-90 (07:03) To: CARL HOUSEMAN Subject: RE: QUANTUM DRIVES ON RBO From: GEORGE DAHLCO In a message of , Carl Houseman (1:109/417@fidonet) writes: >re: any & all hard drives workable on Rainbow > >Well, since you asked, just off the top of my head... > >Drive Size DEC Name Mfr Mfr's Name > 20 m RD31 Seagate ST-225 > 32 m RD52 Quantum Q540 > 40 m RD32 Seagate ST-251 > 67 m RD53 Micropolis ??? So old I forget!!! DEC=1325D, Micropolis=1325 Carl, Just added in the Micropolis part number. Originally "DEC" versions of all those drives were built to DEC spec, generally meaning slightly tighter tolerances on some electrical parts or more often, longer test and burn in. But my guess is nowadays any of the above will work as long as you have the right formatter. I have used all of the above "generic versions" of those disks with success. Interestingly enough, you get 1-3Mb additional formatted capacity when the above disks are used on an IBM PC type machine. Thats because DEC uses 16 sectors per track as opossed to 17 in the PC. Just some trivia... -George, 102/138- - --- msged 1.999.7 * Origin: Long Island_RB VAX EC/RAINBOW/PDP Echo Hub (1:102/138@fidonet) ------------------------------ Date: 10-07-90 (22:17) To: ALL Subject: RAINBOW POWER SUPPLIES From: ANDREW TAYLOR 1) A friend has a dead Rainbow: circuit breaker pops out when you turn it on: presumably a dead power supply. Machine is a 100B 2) Another friend has a 100A power supply. QUESTION: Can I put a 100A power supply into a (Floppy only, no graphics board, ie no power problems) 100B. I vaguely recall that an A has an AC fan and a B has a DC fan (or vice versa). Comments, help etc?? Thanks Andrew Taylor - --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Glacier Peak Rainbow, Bellevue, WA - 206/644-8431 (1:343/3.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-09-90 (15:55) To: GEORGE THEALL Subject: RAINBOW From: AMER NELSON Replying to Charles Watson at U. of Texas: The Rainbow is not THAT compatible with IBM machines or clones. The main hangups are diskette format and (particularly) graphics. The Rainbow is a GOOD machine, however. You can use either CP/M or MS-DOS as an operating system. There are Rainbow-specific versions of several popular programs, but NOT THE LATEST AND GREATEST versions. For example -- 1-2-3 release 2.01, dBaseIII, WordPerfect 4.2. If you can get by with good software without ALL the latest bells & whistles, the Rainbow is for you. If you need documentation our user group has it available at a modest price. Write me at 12030-36th Avenue, N.E., Seattle, WA 98125-5637 or call (206) 365-5795. ++ Amer Nelson ++ - --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Glacier Peak Rainbow, Bellevue, WA - 206/644-8431 (1:343/3.0) ------------------------------ Date: 10-10-90 (08:09) To: GEORGE THEALL Subject: INFO WANTED: RAINBOW 100+ From: DON MARQUART From: spam@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Charles E. Watson) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin > I have an opportunity to buy a Dec Rainbow 100+, but I am not sure what it > is. Would somebody e-mail me their opinion and tell me what operating > systems are available. This computer has no docs. Thanks! The system runs under either MS-DOS or CP/M86/80 featuring both an 8088 and a Z80 processor. While considered to be a little slow ( 4.77 on the 8088) by todays standards it is a very nice system. You would not be able to run software that requires IBM compatible video graphics or has non configurable addressing to the ports though as they are in different locations. If you decide to get the system I do have some extra MS-DOS v2.05 and CP/M86/80 operating system manuals available for 5.00 ea plus shipping. Hope this helps some... - --- ConfMail V4.00 * Origin: Club Micro * CompuMatch (303)973-8578 (1:104/888) ------------------------------ Date: 10-10-90 (17:27) To: ALL Subject: RAINBOW CHARACTER GENERAT From: HARRY GRAY According to the 100B and 100+ technical manual, character code 7F is reserved for the character generator ROM CHECKSUM. Does any body know how this is calculated? I have made a character generator ROM that matches the Symbols10 rom in the LA100, but the Rainbow won't cold boot. It gives the message: See Owner's Manual MESSAGE -1- Main Board. Diskette diagnostics tell me that the problem lies in he video channel. (It is possible to warm boot after the cold boot fails and run diskette diagnostics). Since, in the diagnostics, the video output is rerouted through to MPSC to the 8088, etc., apparently the checksum that I have in the character generator ROM is incorrect for the character set that I have designed. The characters, themselves, are fine. I can't use the Technical character set ROM as it is incompatible with the TURBOW rom for some reason. - --- ConfMail V3.31 * Origin: The Pot of Gold - (703-359-6549) (1:109/103) ------------------------------