test-drb March 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
229 discussions

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

We started working on the RK05 drive that is part of the PDP-12 at the RICM. The drve is very clean and in good condition. It will need new seals between the blower and the card cage, and between the plenum and the disk pack. I think that 1/2" and 1/4" weatherstrip from Home Depot will work fine. The NiCad batteries for emergency head retract are toast. These look like standard 1.2V 2/3AA 400mAh cells. It looks like some cordless phones use the same batteries so I can buy an assembled 4.8V battery pack. Any other suggestions for replacement batteries for the RK05? -- Michael Thompson

8 years, 4 months

Giving away Garage full of computers

by linimon＠lonesome.com

Have you gotten any takers yet? I have a special soft spot for those Printros. mcl

8 years, 4 months

Type 270 disk file on PDP-6

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I just was looking at the I/O device code assignments in the 1973 DECsystem-10 System Reference Manual, and happened to notice the entry for the Type 270 disk file used on the PDP-6. PDP-6 and PDP-10 device codes are three octal digits, of which the third digit can only be 0 or 4. The device code for the Type 270 is octal 270. Coincidence? :-)

8 years, 4 months

Promac-P3 PAL/PROM programmer

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

I have a Promac-P3 PROM/PAL programmer. I'd like to get rid of it. I'll give it away, you just have to pay shipping. It includes a copy of the schematics. Send email offlist if interested.

8 years, 4 months

Which RT-11 for an 11/03

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Richard Cini wrote: >All ? > > To close this out, I want to report that with Malcolm?s and Mattis? help, I was able to get RT-11 v4 and v5.03 running on the H-11 using the TU58 emulator. > > Avoiding the gory details, the upshot is that there was a bus interrupt issue relating to how the cards were installed ? I had the slot numbering wrong so there was a gap between two cards. RT-11 started booting and then barfed during the boot. > > Once I moved the second SLU to the right position, RT-11 booted properly. So, now I have both RT-11 v4 and v5 running on the H-11. Hooray! > > Thanks to all who helped push me along on this. I did create a separate Heath page on my Web site for it. > >Rich > >-- >Rich Cini >http://www.classiccmp.org/cini >http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32 > Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that you have a working system, will it be used to run any specific programs? Based on your descriptions, the most important aspect of the project was to get the H-11 system to run RT-11. What I am very curious about is what do you will do with the system now that it is running? >From what you have stated, both stock versions of RT-11, V04.00 and V05.03, are being used rather than the Heath supplied versions of RT-11. Can you please confirm this assumption? As for the interrupt problems, using an M9047 bus grant card would probably also have solved the problem - if you have one. At this point, do you have any other storage other than the emulated TU58? If so, is it a Heath product or a real DEC product and which storage is it? Jerome Fine

8 years, 4 months

VMS/RSTS/RSX manuals available, SOC, DECdirect books, Newmarket UK

by binarydinosaurs＠gmail.com

Folks, We're refitting the last unrefitted office here and there's a full bookcase of grey heading for the skip unless anyone wants to take them away? Must admit in the 12 years I've worked here I didn't realise there was a shelf of RSTS manuals! Deadline is late next week so thurs/fri 17/18th. -- adrian/witchy Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection? www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

8 years, 4 months

Dumping Images of my VAX-11/730's Drives?

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

This thread is a parallel discussion to a VCF thread that I started last night: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?51653-Dumping-Images-of-my-VAX-11… With today being cold and rainy, it seems like a good excuse to turn on my VAX-11/730. I can boot either VMS 5.2 off the RL02 or OpenVMS 7.3 off the R80, if I recall the version numbers correctly. Several months have passed since the last time I worked on the machine. In my last session I began trying to bring up TCP/IP networking, without success. I want to get raw images of the system's drives off the machine and onto my modern systems. I can think of several approaches, and still more approaches have already been suggested in that VCF thread. I have a number of questions, and I'm also keeping my eyes open for hardware that might help me out. I'm not presently talking to eBay, so that limits my options. First of all, if I manage to get TCP/IP networking up and running today, is there some way under VMS for me to dump raw disk blocks over the network to one of my UNIX-like systems? Alternately, if I manage to cobble together a Linux box running an older DECNET-aware distribution and bring up DECNET on the VAX, would that give me a way to dump raw disk blocks to a file on it across the network? I'm still quite clumsy under VMS. One of these network-based approaches seem like the only options that I would have any chance of achieving today, assuming that the networking hardware on my 11/730 is even in working order. I don't think I have the patience to dump an R80 drive across an async serial port, but if I did have the patience, is there some way to accomplish this under a stock VMS 5.2/7.3 installation? Ditto for the RL02 and 9-track tapes. I have a couple of broken Kennedy 9610 9-track drives in my pile. One has a SCSI interface, so I might be able to interface it to one of my newer machines that have both SCSI and a way to talk to my modern machines, such as my Sun Ultra 60 or my Amiga 3000. Both drives have hub motor drive problems that need to be diagnosed and repaired, though. This might end up being part of my best data path from the VAX to modern machines, but it'll take some time and work. I can think of a few possible approaches if somebody here has suitable hardware for sale or trade: * With an MSCP-emulating UNIBUS SCSI card, I might be able to hang a SCSI2SD off my VAX. These seem to be expensive and hard to find, though. I see a UC17 on eBay for $949 OBO. That's a lot more than I'm presently willing to spend, and I'm not on speaking terms with eBay/PayPal right now anyway. I do hope to find a suitable UNIBUS SCSI adapter at a good price, both for possible use in the VAX and for eventual use in my long-term PDP-11/44 project. * With an M8061 RLV12 card, I might be able to borrow the VAX's RL02 and dump packs on my little PDP-11 half-rack. I already have a QBUS SCSI card for it that I procured a while back. I also have four more RL02 drives out in the pile in the barn for eventual use, but I'd initially borrow the known-working RL02 drive from the VAX, which also happens to be in the same room as my little PDP-11. I don't think I already have an RLV12, but I'll dig through my QBUS cards again today to see if I have one I've forgotten about. * With some sort of Pertec tape adapter for one of my newer computers, I might be able to borrow the TU80 drive from my VAX (I think it has a Pertec interface; not positive yet) and use it to read/write tapes. It could also eventually get used with one of the Kennedy drives, but the TU80 already works. I might be able to use a PCI card in the Sun Ultra 60 if Solaris 8 can talk to it. Or an MCA card in a PS/2 65 that I recently acquired, running OS/2 Warp Connect 4, also assuming I can get suitable software. Or a SCSI to Pertec interface connected to the Ultra 60 or my Amiga 3000. Or even an ISA card in my crusty 386 clone running DOS 6.22. It would be ultimately nice to connect a 9-track to one of my modern Macs, but I don't expect that to be easy. * It was suggested that I might be able to cluster the 11/730 with a MicroVAX, and then transfer data onto some SCSI device on the MicroVAX such as a SCSI2SD. I think I'd need to find a fairly turnkey MicroVAX, though, to avoid a bring-up problem that's even bigger than the data transfer problem I'm trying to solve. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

8 years, 4 months

Olivetti 3MB ST506-interface drive?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Does anyone recall an Olivetti ST506-interface drive with a colossal 3MB capacity? Apparently a full-height 5.25" unit with 4 heads and two platters. I'm just curious; I always thought that capacities either equaled or surpassed the 5MB of Seagate's ST506 after they introduced it, so I was a bit surprised to hear of a drive with < 5MB. For context, Acorn apparently used them during development of their external Winchester units for BBC micros (Acorn SASI board, Adaptec SASI-ST506 bridge, ST506 drive). Production units that I'm aware of had either a 10MB or 30MB drive fitted (BASF typically, I think). We're talking 1983, or maybe late '82, so considerably after the introduction of the original Seagate drive. The only Olivetti drives I'm finding mention of are a 10MB single-platter drive and a 20MB dual-platter drive. Acorn had close ties with Olivetti, of course, so I did wonder if Acorn acquired some pre-production drives - but it seems like a bit of a leap to go from a 3MB dual-platter prototype to a 20MB one. cheers Jules

8 years, 4 months

Sun 4/260

by theevilapplepie＠gmail.com

Howdy there folks, I've been kicking myself for giving away a dying Sun4/260 due to space issues and moving about 15 years ago and since then my life has settled I've started looking occasionally to see if I can find another one. Has anyone seen any of these units in a workable condition that are for sale or possibly even loan? I never got a good chance to dig into the one I had and I regret it, just looking to recoup lost time :) Thanks, James

8 years, 4 months

PDP-11/23 Troubles Again

by ben＠bensinclair.com

In the previous episode, I was trying to get my M8013 and M8014 RL02 controller pair to pass the diskless controller test, and discovered it had some sort of stuck bit. Repairing that seemed a little out of my scope, so I recently found an M8061, and I tried to give it another go today. However, my system has decided to be flakey again after not running for a couple months. I removed the '13 and '14 and started up the memory and CPU diagnostics just to make sure I was in a good starting position. The memory passes just fine, but the JKDBD0 test no longer starts, and turns off the run light. Previously that was because of bad memory, (and it doesn't run at all with too little memory), but using two tested good M8044's got everything working. I reseated everything, and am running with the M8186, two M8044s, M8043, and the M8012, which was my previous good configuration. The power test points on the M8012 are good. I only have two (good, at least before) M8044s for memory, so I don't have anything handy to swap in. I think this particular machine just hates me, but assuming it doesn't, does anyone have other suggestions? Thanks! -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

8 years, 4 months

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test-drb March 2016