[cctalk] Re: VAX 4000 console SLU in need of some TLC

On 21/03/2024 22:03, Jonathan Stone wrote: It's a VAX 4000-300 (KA670) in a BA440, so it has two DSSI, ethernet, the usual switches and LED display.  I can switch ethernet between AUI and BNC (the green LEDs change) and I have known working DETPM AUI<->RJ45 interfaces, so ethernet may be OK. I have found one panel for a KA650 (uV 3500/3600) that has an OK connector but is otherwise a bit toasty, so I'll try carefully removing that tomorrow. If that goes OK, then I'll remove the MMJ socket from the VAX 4000 console SLU: it's dead so there's not really much risk here as long as I'm careful with the PCB. At least I could then tack on 6 wires and find a way of interfacing. I do have at least one H8584-AC, which is an MMJ socket and an RJ45 plug. So with a bit of measuring I could probably find an RJ45 socket and rig up some temporary franken-console. Or, if the KA650 donor is really too far gone, and its socket survives half a dozen cable insertion-removals with no harm, then I could just fit that in place. If the console ethernet doesn't work, I think I can drop in the DELQA with appropriate handles from the KA650 system ... I think that the BA440 Q-bus metalwork and the BA213 metalwork are compatible. If not I have one Q-bus DELQA panel and I'm sure that neither the VAX nor anything else in there with it care too much about RF interference these days! I can find new MMJ plugs all over the place (admittedly I'm assuming that Mouser and Farnell could actually supply them!!) but the corresponding sockets seem to be lost to time. Or at least they remain beyond my goolge-fu. Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio(a)acarlini.com