Free hardware

Still available:

• Applevision 17" monitor

• Sharp 19" TV

• 20 MB external SCSI drive for old Macs

Already spoken for:

• Dec monitors (2)

• Old DECstations (2)

• 1 GB SCSI external drive

• 2400 baud modem

From: Eric Jensen 
To: slug@sccs.swarthmore.edu
cc:
Subject: Free hardware, worth every penny
--------
Hi all,
   My apologies for the non-Linux-related post, but I figure some of
the readers of this list might be rich in computer know-how but poor
in cash, and so might be interested in something below.

   For various reasons, I have some monitors (and a few other
miscellaneous items) sitting around that aren't worth my time to
repair or adapt, but which (with a little work) could be of use to
someone.  If you're interested in any of the items below, they are
yours for the taking, as long as you promise to make a good faith
effort to put them to use.  At the worst, maybe you'll learn something
by taking one apart to see if you can make it work.

First e-mail for a particular item takes it.

* Applevision 1710 17" monitor.  This was my workhorse home monitor
for years, but then it flaked out.  When the computer is first booted,
the monitor is fine for about two minutes, then the picture becomes
just a single vertical line in the middle of the screen.  Some sort of
horizontal sync problem?  Might be fixable, might not.  Whacking the
monitor doesn't help.  :(

* Two ~ 19" monitors from old Dec workstations.  (Models VR229 and
VRT19.)  These work, but the connectors aren't compatible with
standard PCs: there are separate R, G, B wires.  (There is no separate
sync cable - presumably it's the "sync-on-green" type connection.)
See http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_SyncGrn1.html and
http://cvs.anu.edu.au:80/monitorconversion/ for what you'd have to do
to get one of these to talk to a PC.  If you want, you can also have
the old DECstation that went with the monitors...

* (This isn't computer hardware, but I can't resist putting it in
anyway.)  A 19" Sharp color TV.  When turned on, the screen is mostly
blank except for some multi-colored static in the lower half, and
there's a *loud* buzzing from the speaker.  Again, it might be
fixable, might not.  

* 1 GB external SCSI hard disk.  It has older-style SCSI connectors,
but I could probably find some appropriate cabling around here for
it.  I believe it works, but I inherited it from someone else and
haven't tried it myself.

* A 20 MB (that's right, MB, 1/5 of a Zip disk) external hard disk for
the old all-in-one Macs.  (It has the same footprint as those Macs, so
it sits right underneath.)  Great to free your Mac 512K from the
two-floppy limit!  Worked last time I checked, about 6 years ago.

* A 2400 baud external modem.  You can watch the text get painted on
the screen in real time while you read your e-mail.  The only real use
I can think of for this is as a powerfail sensor for a machine with a
dumb UPS: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/UPS-HOWTO-7.html 

 
That's all for now.  If you can give any of this a good home, let me
know.  To save lots of e-mailing (though I can't imagine there being
too much of a run on this stuff), I'll post this message at

http://hven.swarthmore.edu/~jensen/hardware.html

with an update at the top of anything that's already spoken for.

Thanks for listening,

Eric