🚀 go-pugleaf

Three or four weeks ago I posted a <sob> story to this group about my
beloved AT&T 5620 Dot Mapped Display. I'd like to formally thank all
those who responded (please see the acknowledgements at end of this
message) and to convey the good news - DMD lives!

My colleague Bob Bishop, who did all the hardwary work, writes:

	In case you want to follow up to the guys on the net who
	supplied the info, here's the gory details.

	It was indeed a Ball Industries monitor. To cut a long story
	short, the fault was that R208 on the HD TTL Digital Video
	board, supposed to be 300R 2W, had fallen in value to around
	40R. I've seen high-value resistors increase in value, and
	low-value resistors go open-circuit, but I've never seen this
	particular pathological behaviour before.  The effect was that
	it dissipated getting on for 10 times the power it should, and
	got *very* hot.  Anyway, although it cooked other components
	in the vicinity and carbonised a small area of the circuit
	board to such an extent that I had to patch-wire one of the
	tracks, I didn't have to replace any other components.

	The patient appears to have made a complete recovery...

It's now been working full-time, night and day, for over a fortnight.
I did make one mistake the other week by turning it off to give it a
rest...NOT a good idea. I won't be doing that again in a hurry.

More generally, as Paul Muller (muller@munnari.OZ.AU) wrote:

>This thread highlights a disturbing matter: parts and service for the 5620's

The good news, for those who missed it, is that David Dykstra
(dwd@graceland.ih.att.com) is getting schematics from the factory and
is updating the 630_pkg in the Toolchest. I reproduce David'd message
below:

: From: dwd@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (David W. Dykstra)
: Newsgroups: comp.terminals.tty5620
: Subject: Some 5620 answers
: Message-ID: <1992Jul24.152516.17404@cbnewsc.cb.att.com>
: Date: 24 Jul 92 15:25:16 GMT
: Organization: AT&T
: 
: It looks like I'm the only one around here who reads this news group who
: cares and has the contacts to do anything about this stuff so I'm elected.  
: I wasn't involved in the development of the 5620 or 630 but I know
: the people who were.
: 
: > >Anybody got schematics?
: 
: I asked around and we're getting schematics sent from the factory.  I don't
: really want to have to distribute them to everyone, though.  Is someone
: interested in volunteering to distribute the schematics to anyone who
: wants them?  If so, I'll send a copy to you when I get them.
: 
: > I have recently had the Muller version of dmdlayers compiled on the
: > Sun here and it seems not to work with my terminal (DMD 5620).
: > 
: > The problem is that layers reports "Loader not found" and barfs.
: > (not without reason I daresay)
: > 
: > Does this mean I need 32ld? Where can I get it?
: > 
: > My ROM version is 8;7;3, looking at the conditionals in the source
: > it would seem this is the only version not mentioned, is this my problem?
: 
: I am in the process of updating the "630_pkg" in the toolchest.  I 
: found out that I can update this package in the toolchest without 
: requiring any official written approvals so I'm going to add the 32ld 
: downloader and the lsys.8;7;3 (DMD 1.1) download.  While I'm at it I'm 
: updating the other tools in the package to the latest versions and 
: trying to make the tools all compile with both the System V layers and 
: Keith Muller's dmdlayers on Suns.  That's why it's taking me a while.
: 
: The toolchest can be reached by modem at 908-522-6900.  After you register
: you can order the 630_pkg for $100 and can transfer the package by uucp,
: you make the phone call.
: 
: > What is the AT&T policy on ROM upgrades?
: 
: The ROM upgrades are no longer sold.  If you have access to an EPROM burner,
: make your own copies from an already upgraded terminal.  Otherwise, using
: the 32ld and lsys.8;7;3 that will be on the toolchest will at least allow
: you to use layers.
: 
: > In fact I'm puzzled than Dan Wolski or someone else from AT&T hasn't
: > chipped into this conversation yet..
: 
: Dan Wolski's office is a couple doors down from mine, but he is getting
: transferred to Washington D.C.  The new product manager for the 730 is
: an NCR person down in Orlando, but I talked to him and he doesn't want
: to have anything to do with 5620.  He doesn't care if we give away all the
: source as long as nobody makes a profit on it.
: 
: The trouble is that there's no decent way to distribute some of this stuff.
: It's hard to get official channels to take stuff so old.
: 
: I'm seriously considering putting the whole 5620 software generation package
: for Suns on an anonymous ftp site somewhere.  Maybe uunet, or maybe one of you
: out there would like to volunteer a place.  The 5620 package I have for Suns
: includes the sun layers along with some enhancements that I made late last
: year which Keith Muller hasn't picked up.  I've sent mail to him about it
: but he didn't respond.
: 
: > If your group "owns" the source and the 5620 is now an "unsupported"
: > item, why not put everything into the tool chest, including source
: > for the ROMS.
: 
: I'm asking around about getting the source from old backup tapes and seeing
: if I can get the source released one way or another.
: 
: > AT&T should have done this 10 years ago.
: > If they had, I'm sure windowing history would be different.
: 
: > I have been thinking that X may not have looked quite the beast it does today,
: > who would have bothered!? 
: 
: windowing history would have changed drastically.  Layers is too 
: limiting.  It may have had some influence on X but I think X still 
: would have happened.
: 
: - Dave Dykstra
:   dwd@graceland.ih.att.com

In specific response to the schematics question, I for one will
willingly volunteer to hold and distribute copies *in western Europe* -
whether in paper or some alternative format. My colleague Bob Bishop
makes the suggestion:

	I reckon the answer is to get them scanned into TIFF format,
	compress (using compress(1)), and distribute via
	mail/news/anonymous ftp.  TIFF images compress really well,
	but avoid the various `compressed TIFF' formats because they
	aren't very portable - plain TIFF and compress(1) is much
	safer, anyone ought to be able to find some way of printing
	(or viewing) TIFF files.

	If the individual sheets are larger than A4 there may be
	practical difficulties unless you can find someone with a big
	scanner, but you might get away with reduced-photocopying the
	drawings before scanning.


Again, many thanks to all those who responded, and especially to Doug
Gwyn and Dave Turner who kindly responded to several requests for
specific information by private e-mail. Full list follows:

 jimc@tau-ceti.isc-br.com (Jim Cathey)
 ptsfa!dmturne@ns.PacBell.com
 Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn@BRL.mil>
 beyo@beyonet.UUCP (Steve Urich)
 wdean@ccs.itd.umich.edu
 kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov ( Scott Dorsey)
 muller@munnari.OZ.AU (Paul Muller)
 dmturne@ptsfa.PacBell.com (Dave Turner)
 Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn@BRL.mil>
 dmturne@ptsfa.PacBell.COM (Dave Turner)
 Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk>
 dmturne@ptsfa.PacBell.com (Dave Turner)
 dwd@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (David W. Dykstra)
 Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk>

Let's keep these terminals running!

Colston Sanger
-- 
GID - software engineers to the quality
1 Captain's Gorse, Upper Basildon, Reading, Berks RG8 8SZ, UK
UUCP: colston@gid.co.uk               Tel/Fax: +44 491 671964