Retro Reproduction 2

Noel Chiappa jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Sun Oct 25 17:33:23 CDT 2015


    > From: Rod Smallwood

    > Just refresh my memory. C+K are the what I would call PDP8 type?

No, the C+K are the lever toggle switches, as used in the -11/05/40/45/70.
Only the /20 uses the slide switches like the -8.

    > In an attempt to get ahead of the requests I have been trawling the web
    > for pictures of anything DEC that has a front panel.

Well, if you're ready for more, I'll start sending you the info for the
UNIBUS disk controller indicator panels (RF11, RK11-C, RP11-C), then! :-)

    > It would seem you are Mr Switches and I am Panel Man. !!

You're definitely panels; I'm probably only going to do the toggle switches
(if the ones I've found are the right ones). I think someone else has the
slide switches under control?


BTW, the terminology for the various display parts is a bit confusing, so let
me lay out what I gather to be the official DEC terminology.

For the "indicator panels" - which is the term for the complete assembly (for
the RF11, RK11-C and RP11-C), the flat sheet of plastic with all the light
captions silk-screened onto it on it seems to be the "inlay" (q.v. RF11
controller engineering drawings, pg. 187 of the PDF). The "bezel" is the thin
white rim that goes around the 'inlay'. The formal name for the light shield
(the piece of fibre-board with all the holes drilled in it) is 'Benelex'
(Benelex is "general use, word fibre board"). Alas, it's no longer available,
so any new light shields will have to use something else.

For the PDP-11 front consoles, BTW, the terms are "bezel", "console panel"
(the piece that is called the 'inlay' on the indicator panels), and "console
PC board" (all this per the 11/45, /50, /55 System Maintainence Manual,
EK-11045-MM-007, pp. 131-132 of the PDF).

	Noel


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