Author Topic: DOLCH PAC-6x sniffers and Cherry blues? (Read 37010 times)

Nonmouse · « **on:** Wed, 03 March 2010, 18:49:45 »

So, I'm given to understand that the PAC-64 network sniffer definitely has the Cherry blues.

How about the other versions? PAC-65, PAC-60, PAC-62? (I kinda assume there were PAC-61 and PAC-63 models in there, but I've never seen one come up on fleaBay.)

Anybody out there that knows which of these models used Cherry blues? All of 'em? Some of 'em? Some of 'em, sometimes?

salcan · « **Reply #1 on:** Wed, 03 March 2010, 18:54:45 »

I've been tracking these for a few weeks now and I haven't found too much good information. I can tell you that there are a few keyboard variants so you can't just buy a PAC 6x and assume it will the keyboard you want. That said, the ones with the desktop style keyboard do seem to have the blues. The ones with the trackpad don't.

From what I can tell the most desirable model is the one with the trackpoint in the top right corner.

The connection type is the biggest problem with these. Most use RJ11 while some don't have a cord and instead have a jack that the sniffer plugs into.

Caveat- this is all based on what I can find from searching around. There doesn't seem to be any good data on these. I'm going to buy one sooner or later though...

elbowglue · « **Reply #2 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 13:17:41 »

I was looking at some of these keyboards before, I wonder if this would work to connect them to a modern PC:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wang-724-Keyboard-Cable-for-725-3770-We-make-them_W0QQitemZ130363768101QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Mice_Trackballs?hash=item1e5a493d25#ht_1295wt_958

Someone buy this and tell me if it works:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dolch-PAC60-Sniffer-Network-Analyzer_W0QQitemZ150421672026QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2305d4905a#ht_2409wt_754

Seems like a good way to get a US layout g80-1800 with cherry blues with double shots in a cool color scheme. Should be 15.9inches x 7 inches in size which in the heirarchy of smallness is pretty decent.

salcan · « **Reply #3 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 14:11:00 »

Quote from: elbowglue;162953

I was looking at some of these keyboards before, I wonder if this would work to connect them to a modern PC:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wang-724-Keyboard-Cable-for-725-3770-We-make-them_W0QQitemZ130363768101QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Mice_Trackballs?hash=item1e5a493d25#ht_1295wt_958

Someone buy this and tell me if it works:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dolch-PAC60-Sniffer-Network-Analyzer_W0QQitemZ150421672026QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2305d4905a#ht_2409wt_754

Seems like a good way to get a US layout g80-1800 with cherry blues with double shots in a cool color scheme. Should be 15.9inches x 7 inches in size which in the heirarchy of smallness is pretty decent.

I'm watching that auction, but I'm not going to buy. I don't like the looks of that keyboard--there seems to be a removable connector on the left side which makes me think that the jack on the computer might be permanent. Plus $45 shipping?

As for that converter, I don't know enough about the Wang keyboards to say anything, but in the listing he says "PS/2 Plug with coiled flat cable RJ45", which sounds about right. The converter looks like a a big 'ole AT barrel, but it could just be the picture.

salcan · « **Reply #4 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 16:23:10 »

OK I emailed him. He said:

"The keyboard is attached to the unit thru a cable. One side of the cable to the unit is a 5-pin male DIN connector. The other side of the cable to the keyboard is a 6-pin mini-DIN male connector(PS/2 Style). There is no model # on the keyboard."

I'd skip this one, unless if someone has a good idea.

itlnstln · « **Reply #5 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 16:27:17 »

Sort of OT: What were these Dolch units used for?

salcan · « **Reply #6 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 16:31:39 »

It's a packet analyzer. I believe they were used for inspecting networks for problems, detecting weaknesses, and monitoring. This is just a portable, self-contained unit.

itlnstln · « **Reply #7 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 16:39:07 »

Quote from: salcan;163012

This is just a portable, self-contained unit.

... that came with a badass keyboard in a highly sought-after form factor.

salcan · « **Reply #8 on:** Wed, 10 March 2010, 16:48:20 »

Quote from: itlnstln;163016

... that came with a badass keyboard in a highly sought-after form factor.

Though I haven't used one yet, I'm confident that it's going to be a really solid board. This is, after, all a G80-18xx series keyboard.

ricercar · « **Reply #9 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 01:53:42 »

I picked up a $35 Dolch PAC-60 network analyzer today because it has a Cherry blue keyboard. The Cherry blue keyboard has a standard PS/2 port (female), and the lunchbox has an AT port (female). I'm using a PS/2 KVM cable with a PS/2-to-male_AT adapter to explore. Haven't put it on a blue cube yet. Pictures coming when my camera comes back from someone else's vacation.

Basically it's a dedicated 486 with 8M RAM and 15M free on the allegedly 20M HD. Boots to DOS 6.22 or a menu with various network analyzer functionality. I want to put 95 or 98 or 2K on it; something that lets me watch DVDs on the circa 8" LCD.

kishy · « **Reply #10 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 10:12:40 »

DVD...you'll probably need hardware acceleration for that, and on a 486...it won't exist.

Win2k on a 486 isn't supposed to be possible either, but I'm interested to see if you make it work.

ch_123 · « **Reply #11 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 10:25:48 »

Check this out

Either way, you'd be pretty mad to put anything more than Windows 3.11 on that thing.

Does the thing even have a colour screen?

salcan · « **Reply #12 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 11:10:34 »

Quote from: ricercar;169412

I picked up a $35 Dolch PAC-60 network analyzer today because it has a Cherry blue keyboard. The Cherry blue keyboard has a standard PS/2 port (female), and the lunchbox has an AT port (female). I'm using a PS/2 KVM cable with a PS/2-to-male_AT adapter to explore. Haven't put it on a blue cube yet. Pictures coming when my camera comes back from someone else's vacation.

Hey, nice! Glad someone was brave enough to get one. I've still been locking but the shipping charges are usually a lot. Glad to hear that the keyboard is working, that's a relief.

Can you post a pic of the board? Does it say the Cherry model number on there anywhere? Apparently most don't.

Nonmouse · « **Reply #13 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 12:39:12 »

A little more info on Dolch keyboards...

I asked the seller to pull of a keycap from this Flexpac, which has a touchpad in the keyboard. Instead, he disassembled it. o.O

Hmmm... Low profile keycaps. Doesn't look good for the idea of it having MX swtiches...

After re-assembly and pulling off a cap...

Nope. No Cherry blues. Looks like ML switches to me...

From pictures of Pac-65s I've seen, it looks like some of them have low-profile keycaps like the Flexpac (and a touchpoint instead of a touchpad)- I'm assuming that MLs lurk under this keyboard's caps:

But some of them have higher profile keys, like the PAC-60 and PAC-64.

Hey, is that a touchpoint lurking over there in a really inconvenient corner of the keyboard? Looks like it.

Here's one on eBay with the higher profile keycaps. (In fact, it's the one pictured above.)

So it looks like Dolch switched from blue MXs to MLs partway through the Pac-65 run- I think if they have a two-tone grey keyboard, they use blue MXs, and if they have black keys they'll have MLs. And it looks like Flexpacs all have MLs (at least all the pictures I've seen look like low-profile caps), despite having the two-tone grey color scheme. That's what it looks like to me at least, from piktars on teh interwebs...

However, take all this with a big grain of salt- I'm making an awful lot of assumptions based on not much information. Don't blame me if you snag one of these and it doesn't have the switches you want.

ricercar · « **Reply #14 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 18:19:43 »

Quote from: ch_123;169466

you'd be pretty mad to put anything more than Windows 3.11 on that thing

Me? mad? Bwah ha ha ha!

His Unholy Madness remembers that in 1995 Win95 ran OK on my first build, an AMD 486DX100 with 8MB RAM. Granted, this Dolch is only a 486DX66 MHz, but I'm still planning to do the Win95 thing as soon as I get an optical drive hooked up. Where'd my ISA Adaptec 1495 get to?

Quote from: ch_123;169466

Does the thing even have a colour screen?

Yeah, it does! I was surprised to read the Dolch PAC 60 has a LCD, not a CRT. Color was a bonus round. I can't figure the resolution from DOS, though. Amazing what I remember.

Code: [Select]

[LIST]
[*]dir /w /p
[*]memmaker (won't run because QEMM is installed)
[*]mem /c
[*]dosshell (not installed, boo hoo)
[/LIST]

I hope to get Magic the Gathering and Elite Frontiers running again. They won't work in a VM, and my VMware colleagues never understood why.

--
That How-low-can-you-go website with an 8 MHz Pentium FSB running WinXP was wild.

MarkWilliamson · « **Reply #15 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 18:35:12 »

Quote from: ricercar;169543

I hope to get Magic the Gathering and Elite Frontiers running again. They won't work in a VM, and my VMware colleagues never understood why.

Have you tried using other virtualizers / emulators? Especially if you're trying to run old DOS games I'm not surprised if you're tickling odd behaviour of VMware, for instance. Qemu, VirtualBox, DosBox and JPC are all free and open source, so you can try them out at no cost.

salcan · « **Reply #16 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 19:07:45 »

Nonmouse-

Yes, from everything I've found this is the one to get:

That is essentially a cherry G80-1800 board. You don't want to pick up anything that looks low profile or has a trackpad built in.

This is just based on a little research though, I'm sure at this point ricercar knows more than the rest of us about which one to pick up.

elbowglue · « **Reply #17 on:** Sun, 04 April 2010, 22:31:15 »

Nice find ricercar. Would you be able to post a few pics? In particular i was interested in if you can slant the keyboard at all, or is it always laying totally flat? Also what does the cable look like, is it coiled?

This is a sweet formfactor keyboard. It's like my desko without the huge card swiper.

Has nice sweet colored doubleshot keys too. It's a great KB from what I can see - probably PCB mounted too.

iMav · « **Reply #18 on:** Mon, 05 April 2010, 03:11:25 »

Looks like it got relisted without the keyboard. Did someone buy just the keyboard off of the seller?

ricercar · « **Reply #19 on:** Tue, 06 April 2010, 20:23:50 »

My PAC 60 Cherry blue board has a Cherry GREEN under the space bar. Photos later tonight after my little monsters are in bed.

Nonmouse · « **Reply #20 on:** Tue, 06 April 2010, 20:29:43 »

Quote from: ricercar;170232

My PAC 60 Cherry blue board has a Cherry GREEN under the space bar. Photos later tonight after my little monsters are in bed.

Innit what it should have?

ricercar · « **Reply #21 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 00:54:44 »

Cherry blues with a green under the space bar. This is the only Cherry green I own.

The keyboard has feet to allow a raised position.

My keyboard cable is straight. This is NOT the one that shipped with the unit. I received my PAC 60 with no cables.

Inside there's a 486 motherboard with six ISA VL bus slots.

Chips and Technology video with a ribbon running to the LCD and a DB15 for external VGA
Multi-controller board with IDE, Serial, Parallel, FDC, Game ports.
Intel Ethernet card with RJ45 and a BNC connector.
empty
empty
Intel i960 RISC card. WOW. Can't wait to see what I can do with this one!

I borked the IDE connection while rummaging around inside and get an unbootable IDE controller error now. I expect this is merely an IDE cable inversion or one end was unplugged.

salcan · « **Reply #22 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 08:40:41 »

ricer- so that's a pac 60 board that outputs to ps2? Does it have any cursor controls on it? Those seem like the best way to tell them part from one another.

I believe what you have there is essentially a G80-1813HFU

kishy · « **Reply #23 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 08:52:49 »

ricercar: I won't tell you what you did wrong, but I will tell you I'm disappointed.

ricercar · « **Reply #24 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 11:17:03 »

Hey, lighten up. I have it all working now. These ancient IDE cables aren't keyed with either a missing pin or a tab. It's easy to invert one end.

Yes, there's a normal PS/2 port on the keyboard. Yes it has cursor controls.

Was there a PAC 60 picture anyone wanted that hasn't appeared yet?

kishy · « **Reply #25 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 11:20:39 »

Quote from: ricercar;170340

Hey, lighten up. I have it all working now. These ancient IDE cables aren't keyed with either a missing pin or a tab. It's easy to invert one end.

Not that, anyone can do that.

I mean what was addressed recently.

ricercar · « **Reply #26 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 11:27:54 »

What's so wrong with "DB15" for HD-D-sub 15? It's like resisting "ain't". Common use defines language, not the dictionary.

((Gods, I hated typing that. Seems I'll go to any length to play devil's advocate.))

kishy · « **Reply #27 on:** Wed, 07 April 2010, 11:35:23 »

I go with DE15HD but that's supposedly not right...forget where I read that one however.

elbowglue · « **Reply #28 on:** Thu, 08 April 2010, 04:22:58 »

Who won this one?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110513315184&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2723wt_965
Seller had offered me $45 + $29.99 shipping to california for the keyboard and cable alone.

ch_123 · « **Reply #29 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 06:33:19 »

Does anyone know if the Dolch's PSU can run on 230V? I was thinking of getting one from the US, but want to make sure I don't need a transformer for it.

ricercar · « **Reply #30 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 16:26:27 »

Quote from: ch_123;180920

Does anyone know if the Dolch's PSU can run on 230V?

Yes. THey do. Mine says

Quote from: Dolch PAC 60

Power 100-240V 50/60 Hz 5A

ooh, cool. The Dolch internal 7" color LCD has a ribbon connector for a VGA input. I can use it as an external display.

ch_123 · « **Reply #31 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 16:27:29 »

Nice.

I've seen some good auctions around, might get one.

ricercar · « **Reply #32 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 16:32:49 »

It's nearly no gamble. 3 out of 3 I've dealt with have Cherry blues.

itlnstln · « **Reply #33 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 16:34:04 »

That would suck to be the one who gets stuck with some MYs.

ch_123 · « **Reply #34 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 16:34:33 »

Quote from: ricercar;181266

It's nearly no gamble. 3 out of 3 I've dealt with have Cherry blues.

This was a -61. Does this affect my odds?

ricercar · « **Reply #35 on:** Tue, 11 May 2010, 16:56:43 »

I've seen PAC 40 and PAC 60. IIRC the 61 was on eBay recently, explicitly with blues.

ch_123 · « **Reply #36 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 11:13:46 »

So, these keyboards are PS?2 compatible, right?

elbowglue · « **Reply #37 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 15:33:33 »

Straight outta compton:
Two dolch's, pac 64, pac 61 probably both have cherry blue keyboards.

ch_123 · « **Reply #38 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 17:28:55 »

Incidentally folks, stay away from Dolch auctions on eBay for the next few days please, I actually want to have a full unit, and not just rape it for some keycaps like some around here would =)

kishy · « **Reply #39 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 17:52:47 »

Quote from: ch_123;181616

Incidentally folks, stay away from Dolch auctions on eBay for the next few days please, I actually want to have a full unit, and not just rape it for some keycaps like some around here would =)

I'd like a whole unit too...it's like a Compaq Portable but better.

Shame the shipping alone is murder on these things (yeah, like I'm one to talk).

ricercar · « **Reply #40 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 18:10:11 »

I have a Dolch PAC 60 WITHOUT the keyboard for the price of shipping. 486 packet sniffer, 7" or 8" color LCD. Send PM.

ch_123 · « **Reply #41 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 18:13:51 »

Would prefer the whole package tbh. And one of the later ones with the CD drive integrated.

microsoft windows · « **Reply #42 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 19:39:51 »

It would be fun to try loading Windows 7 on my Gateway 2000 with its 200Mhz Pentium and 64MB of RAM along with that 4 MB Voodoo card.

ch_123 · « **Reply #43 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 19:46:11 »

I ran XP on a 400MHz Pentium II for quite some time...

kishy · « **Reply #44 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 19:49:19 »

Quote from: ch_123;181675

I ran XP on a 400MHz Pentium II for quite some time...

I ran it on a P2 350 with 128MB of RAM.

Eventually supplied that system with a Radeon 7000.

Note to self: remember never to try mixing Radeon 7000 and ASUS P2B-F again.

I've also run WinFLP on a K6-2 266...or is that just a K6? I dunno. Gave that sucker 128MB of RAM too. Nothing can counteract a 66MHz FSB, though.

ch_123 · « **Reply #45 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 19:51:36 »

I had 64MB... I remember getting a 2.2GHz P4 with 512MB RAM sometime after, and noting that the latter could power up, log in, and shut down faster than the Pentium II machine could get to the login screen from cold boot.

kishy · « **Reply #46 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 19:53:07 »

Quote from: ch_123;181678

I had 64MB... I remember getting a 2.2GHz P4 with 512MB RAM sometime after, and noting that the latter could power up, log in, and shut down faster than the Pentium II machine could get to the login screen from cold boot.

That doesn't sound right...well, 64MB...

Actually, on 64MB, that sounds about right.

EverythingIBM · « **Reply #47 on:** Wed, 12 May 2010, 20:13:38 »

Quote from: microsoft windows;181671

It would be fun to try loading Windows 7 on my Gateway 2000 with its 200Mhz Pentium and 64MB of RAM along with that 4 MB Voodoo card.

I tried playing Rayman 3 on my 300PL once, it crashed obviously: I expect the same of windows 7 on an old system.

ch_123 · « **Reply #48 on:** Thu, 13 May 2010, 05:53:31 »

There's one going pretty soon... US only

Link

itlnstln · « **Reply #49 on:** Thu, 13 May 2010, 08:15:07 »

I ran XP on my abacus... *****es.

News:

Author Topic: DOLCH PAC-6x sniffers and Cherry blues? (Read 37010 times)