test-drb May 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

202 participants
259 discussions

Board swapping (was Re: General Question about UNIBUS backplanes)

by abs＠absd.org

On 24 May 2016 4:45 pm, "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:36 AM, william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:17 AM, js at cimmeri.com <js at cimmeri.com> wrote: > >> B, what was the issue with the core, that you fixed it so fast? > > > > I guessed that the G114 was bad based on a hunch. > > > > I had a spare. > > Q. How do you know the guy on the side of the highway with a flat tire > is a DEC Field Service Engineer? > > A. He's swapping out all the tires to see which one is flat. > > (or from net.jokes in 1981... > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.jokes/GQ2B6HZIY_4 ) > > The way I heard it was: > How do you tell if a man with a flat tire is a DEC Field Service Rep? > Look in the trunk; if he's from DEC F.S. he'll have three spares with little > red tags on them and no jack. My favourite at the time was: Q: How does DEC Field Circus deal with a flat tyre? A: Swap the wheels one by one until the issue is resolved. Q: How does DEC Field Circus deal with a flat battery? A: Swap the wheels one by one until the issue is resolved. :)

8 years, 1 month

ND-10 software - Re: Harris H800 Computer

by mattislind＠gmail.com

> > > > Hey, this is useful. > > Thanks for doing it! > > Yep! > Already investigating. IMD gave me some trouble, had to resort to > dosbox. Source for PED (Programmer's Editor) version G? I've never > seen source. I have version F as a :PROG file. I'm guessing that Planc > version C may compile it.. this will stretch my emulator. Haven't yet > figured out how to handle that PED2.DMK file, so I don't know what it > contains - executable? > > > PED2.DMK and DISK8.IMD is the same disk, but different ways of reading it off the disk. I used both the standard PC-floppy and then also the catweasel card. I tried the catweasel for some floppies that I had reading trouble with. I am really interested in hearing more about your emulator! /Mattis

8 years, 1 month

Board swapping (was Re: General Question about UNIBUS backplanes)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:36 AM, william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:17 AM, js at cimmeri.com <js at cimmeri.com> wrote: >> B, what was the issue with the core, that you fixed it so fast? > > I guessed that the G114 was bad based on a hunch. > > I had a spare. Q. How do you know the guy on the side of the highway with a flat tire is a DEC Field Service Engineer? A. He's swapping out all the tires to see which one is flat. (or from net.jokes in 1981... https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.jokes/GQ2B6HZIY_4 ) The way I heard it was: How do you tell if a man with a flat tire is a DEC Field Service Rep? Look in the trunk; if he's from DEC F.S. he'll have three spares with little red tags on them and no jack. -ethan

8 years, 1 month

General Question about UNIBUS backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > I removed the core backplanes and returned the DD11-C to the orig > config next to the CPU. I re-inserted cards as-was. I am not getting > comms from the M7856. Ugh. Not good. Does it respond on the UNIBUS? (I.e. if you try to read the registers from the front panel?) > I may have shorted the card. If you somehow plugged it into one of the core backplanes, good chance, alas. They have either -15V or +20V (I think the latter, for the MM11-U) running around on various pins. (Oh, BTW, you probably already know this, but just in case not: those backplanes take specific boards in specific slots; check the manuals/prints for the correct slots.) Do you have a spare M7856 you can swap in to make sure the machine is otherwise functional? If not, let me know, I have a bunch of spare M7800's, I can send you one (known, tested good). Noel

8 years, 1 month

Most useful 3D Printer I've seen

by mark＠markesystems.com

> Why have cool looking replica systems. Edible ones would be so much > better. > http://phys.org/news/2016-05-d-candy-maker-billed-world-york.html This is a bit off-topic, but I can't resist a correction to provide some credit where due. Although billed as such, this is far from being the "first 3D printer for candy". One (of many) counter-examples can be found at http://candyfab.org (from 2006). ~~ Mark Moulding

8 years, 2 months

General Question about UNIBUS backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > Card slot 2 of the backplane was "de-jumpered" and requires a NPR card. > The RL02 needs to be in a slot that would otherwise need an NPR card, as I > understand things. Correct. (Although technically it's an RL11 controller card, the RL02 is the drive; but there are other controller cards for the RL02 for other buses, e.g. the RLV11 for the QBUS.) >> those would be MM11-U backplanes, right? > Here is a closeup. I'm away from my machine at the moment, so I don't know if that's what an MM11-U says; I'll check tomorrow. > System came to me as thus, after the CPU, the 3011-cf backplane had the > following: This below all looks OK. > UNIBUS 10 A-B (LEFT SIDE OF UNIBUS) Yeah, that's 'UNIBUS in'. > M7856 10 F-C (RS232 WITH 19.2 OPTION?) And the console board in the bottom part of that slot, good. > G7273 11 C-D An NPG/BG jumper card (but that doesn't mean the NPG jumper is removed >from that slot, mind - you have to check the wiring to be positive). You could put the RL11 card in this slot (with the jumper removed). > 7891 12 A-F (64k MEMORY) Yup, sounds good. > M9312 13 A-B (ROM CARD) > 672A 13 D (GRANT CONT.) Yeah, nothing in the SPC part of that slot, and the 9312 in the 'UNIBUS out' part, so it must be acting as a terminator. > I am going to switch to another backplane and start over. To be honest, I'd stick with that one, actually! You have some data to indicate that it is OK (the machine worked as you got it). > From: Mattis Lind > Isn't it just a a DD11-C backplane with power-wring entering from the > back, rather than through small circuit boards? I think the one with the power coming in through paddle-boards is the DD11-A. The DD11-C has 2 MUD slots in the center, not the SPC slots of earlier backplanes. (Not sure what the DD11-B is.) > But all this still doesn't now explain the problem that you cannot > access (or send characters to) the serial port. I got the impression from what he said (that the boot ROM seemed to run OK) that the registers on the console serial board are accessible from the bus OK. If they aren't, the potential causes are quite different from those which would cause the different symptoms of 'card responds, but no characters come out', so we need to nail down which it is before further debugging. Oh, another idea for debugging this: if it's 'registers OK, no characters', try an EIA debugging unit (one of those things with a DB25 male and female, and a bunch of LEDs, that would probably help a lot). > If I were you I would try to get back to the state where it worked, > shortening the Unibus to just include the 4-slot back plane and the CPU > backplane and also remove the RL11 for now. Then install the RL11 in > slot 11 when everything is working. Exactly what I would do! :-) Noel

8 years, 2 months

ISO Force DRAM-8C switch/jumper settings

by aek＠bitsavers.org

If anyone has any Force manuals squirreled away, I'd like to figure out how to configure one of their 8meg memory boards. Started playing with some VME boards that I had collected over the years, including a huge pile of stuff from Integrated Solutions. Depressing that I had forgotten how much of this stuff I have.

8 years, 2 months

General Question about UNIBUS backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > So I decided to insert two 32K core memory backplanes 32KW, those would be MM11-U backplanes, right? > My plan is to replace the solid-state RAM card with core, and this will > free up a slot on the 4-slot backplane for a terminator. Terminators all only go in the last slot of the last backplane anyway (either that, or a UNIBUS 'out' cable), so adding extra backplanes shouldn't give you "a slot .. for a terminator". Also, Paul's point is a good one: the hex memory cards need so-called 'MUD slots' (hex), not SPC slots (quad), and only (IIRC) the DD11-C/D have MUD slots. (Those came in with the 11/04-34, IIRC). > the serial card seems to have stopped working. It appears that the > console program is being loaded and runs from the M9312 but nothing is > appearing on the terminal. I cannot send an "A" to the terminal, the > most basic test I can think of. Hmm. You can read/write the console registers from the console, though, it sounds like? My guess would be that if your serial port is EIA, somehow you're missing -15V or something on the DD11 in its new location. Study the -11/35-40 system manual to learn about which 'bricks' supply which voltages to which system units. And while you're at it, check that you have the right 'bricks' for the MM11-U. The -11/35-40 system manual has lots of text on how to support the MM11-U. > Can you only use the core backplanes for core memory (assume yes), or > are they capable of holding other types of cards temporarily? AFAICR, the MM11-U backplane does _not_ have an SPC slot in it. IIRC, the 16KW MM11-U board set is a quad controller board, and 3 hex boards (core, X-Y and something else). So two sets (the backplane holds two) would be 8, so one empty slot - which IIRC is blank. Check the MM11-U manual, it's available. > I have one slot that needs the npg, it's in place. ??? _Every_ SPC/MUD slot which does not have a DMA device in it _must_ have the jumper on the backplane (or the _double_ width UNIBUS grant card, whose number escapes my memory, which contains a NPG jumper). Not sure if that was the import of what you wrote there. Noel

8 years, 2 months

General Question about UNIBUS backplanes

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

On May 22, 2016 1:22 PM, "Mark Darvill" <mark.darvill at mac.com> wrote: > > The core memory/CPU backplane is a special case and doesn?t need grant cards. > > If you have linked up to the expansion Unibus then you need to check you have the NPG jumper in row C, Pins A1 and B1 in each slot. If these do not have wire wrap then you will either need to wire wrap them or insert a G727 into the backplane slot. Without these the units will hang on attempting to use a card that requires DMA access. > > Hope this helps. > > Mark > Thanks Mark..yes I have one slot that needs the npg, it's in place. I have not had a chance to test with grant cards removed hope that does the trick

8 years, 2 months

Most useful 3D Printer I've seen

by jws＠jwsss.com

Why have cool looking replica systems. Edible ones would be so much better. http://phys.org/news/2016-05-d-candy-maker-billed-world-york.html thanks Jim

8 years, 2 months

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test-drb May 2016