I'm going over the card configuration of a PDP11/84 and reading the
online documents, and I'm confused about a couple of things. I need to
get squared away on this, as I'm testing some drives needed in
production and only have Unibus SDI adapters.
Pardon the obvious lack of clue. I've never worked with a Unibus
machine before, and don't know the terminology at all. Also, I have a
hand-written diagram from someone even less educated than I, so if there
isn't a board number with the description, I don't have it or can't
clearly read it. I won't physically see the machine till this weekend.
First, there's an expansion chassis. It has a terminator card
(M9302) in row 7 (starting from 0) in what I assume is slots E-F (front
of the rack is A?). OK, I get that, but theres a non-NPG single-slot
grant card in row 7 slot C, and in succeeding rows, there are more
boards - M9700 or M9100, M105, M7226 in row 8, power and M7821 in row 9,
power and M117 in row 10, and M002 in row 11. How is this functional?
Is there a reliable way to determine grant configuration without
physical examination of the backplane? The machine was [allegedly] very
recently running in this configuration, but I don't want to smoke
something by counting on that. I'd like to strip the non-essentials for
testing. A test setup in a single card cage - base boards plus SDI and
RX02 controllers - would save a lot of juice and reduce points of failure.
Last, the CPU is an M8190-AE, which lists in Megan Gentry's reference
as 11/84 *or* 11/83? So I could drop this pup into a QBus chassis after
the SDI drives are tested? What would be the relative merits of doing that?
Doc
>Yeah, I hate USB as well. It is far from Universal, considering that
>very little USB hardware works on a Macintosh due to the lack of
>drivers, and even with the proper drivers, it seems to be flakey at
>best.
What are you trying to run on the Mac via USB?
If it is a mouse or joystick, have a look at USB Overdrive. That guy
seems to support everything!
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
I have a documation reader that had the classic meltdown of the
rollers.
Anyone work on those, want to quote a price for a fix? or have
reasonable priced unit.
I also wish to build up the USB interface for this as well, but that
will wait till I have a working specimen in hand.
Thanks
Jim Stephens
>Do they have both a "Reset" and "Interrupt" buttons in the back or just
>"Reset"? If the former it's a Lisa 2/10; the latter then it's a Lisa 2
>(upgrade from a Lisa 1).
They have both the Interrupt and Reset buttons. So I'm guessing they are
the Lisa 2/10.
The previous owner told me he thought they were 2/5 as he said there is
no internal hard drives. I just opened the front of one, and there is a
hard drive in it. So it really looks like they are in fact the 2/10
version.
I also have two styles of mice. One is the screw on D shell like the 128
has (with the large fat connector), and the other is the Lisa 1 style
spring clip D shell. He said he bought the machines from his company
years ago, so I'm not too surprised that there are parts that might not
have gone with these specific machines.
Both machines have a parallel expansion card in them. Or at least I
assume that is what the card is. The one that was hooked up had the
Profile drive and printer connected to the two ports on the expansion
card. And the ports are labeled with two parallel lines.
Why does the Lisa have two serial ports on the machine if they planned on
you using parallel ports for the drive and printer? I thought Apple at
that time was in the "we give you exactly what you need and nothing more"
mode? Or did that attitude go soley with the Mac line?
Also, was it normal for there to be an anti-glare screen on the CRTs?
Both screens have a fabric feel to them, and when I popped the front off
one, it was this screen that sits on the CRT. Was this a normal part, or
some extra that was added?
And finally, anyone have any idea which power cords shipped with the Lisa
2/10? They came with generic black power cords. Is that what they shipped
with, or did they use the beige right angle plug like the early Macs did?
I have a box of Apple logo cords and if I have the right ones, I'd like
to match them up.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
> Also, once I get this machine working
>again, I will need to find some software for it. I would assume that
>there is no place to download System/23 software,
I did just find yesterday another box of 8" disks. This box has the
Customer Support Disks in it. That set of disks has assorted tools and
software. They aren't original disks, but rather duplicates.
I just have to find out if the System 23 software is usable on my 5110.
If not, then I'll be offering up the remaining System 23 stuff (8" disks,
and an almost complete set of manuals... one of the volume binders is
missing its contents, and none of the original disks are to be found, but
I think I have copies of all refered to disks in the box I just located.
The remaining manuals appear to be complete).
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
>Nope. BASIC programs could possibly be translated, but the 5110 won't
>read them from disk so you'd have to either retype them or transfer them
>serially.
That's what I thought, but before I got rid of the System 23 software, I
figured I'd check.
Now I just have to figure out which disks of programs were for the 5110
and which were for the System 23.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Hi all,
Anybody knows, if they are still available somewhere ?
Order number ?
(I'm talking about the connectors on the backplanes, with .125" spacing)
cheers & thanks
If i remember right,
only four wires are used in the current loop
interface.
two for xmit and two for rcve.
most tty's did 180 baud or near it.
the best way i have found to interface it, is to get
one of the orignal ibm pc xt 8 bit, 1 port serial
cards (the ones with the db-25 connector on the back).
consult the instructions (i have a copy of those here
somewhere) reverse the jumber pack for current loop
and connect the proper pins for current loop too.
that usually works for me.
Bill
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I am looking for the cables to attach a 180K internal diskette drive to a
working TRS 80 model III computer. Anyone have one for sale/trade? I am
also looking for schematic so I can follow during install process. All I
have is the drive itself.
Bill
Wilmington, Delaware.
Hiyas,
While going through the (many, sigh) boxes of old crap, trying
to find the manual for the AST FourPort card, I found my good
old Irwin tape drive again... I already have about 120 tapes
in the machine room (I always managed to keep those "with" all
the other tapes..) which contain a lot of old software.
So.. does anyone still have these drives? I can probably go
and resurrect my old 286/20 machine (to which the drive was
once connected ;) and install a fresh copy of DOS on that,
but I probably also need the software for it... I remember I
used both their "old" system (FIP, I believe) and their new
stuff, EZ-TAPE I believe....
Oh.. and anyone able to feed me info on the (&(#$^(#^ AST
card should report in for duty asap :)
Cheers,
Fred
--
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/
Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/
Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA
