test-drb

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101090 discussions

Attempt at Compaq keybord swap with a PC keyboard (failed)

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

I have luggable with the famous Keytronics foam kepad rot. I am searching for the foam (have not found it yet), and on a lark, I tried using a PC keyboard. In the PC keyboard, I soldered in a 7805 to take the Compaq 12V to 5V for the PC keyboard. Traced the clock and data lines, hooked it all up and it does not work. The Keytronics (compaq) keyboard either has a different protocol or signals inverted, I have not got that far with the scope yet to see the difference. Has anybody found a source for the Keytronics mylar foam pads? Randy

8 years, 3 months

Altair

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

Hi Brad. I saw your message on the ClassicCmp mailing list about desiring an Altair. Are you still interested in one? Sellam

8 years, 3 months

heavy stuff -- was: Anyone want an RK11-C manual?

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

Van: Tony Duell<mailto:ard.p850ug1 at gmail.com> Verzonden: vrijdag 16 december 2016 17:54 Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org> Onderwerp: Re: Anyone want an RK11-C manual? On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 4:31 PM, Henk Gooijen <henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> wrote: > > But I am not giving up hope ? I recently acquired something I did not think > to be possible to happen ? I ?picked up? an H960 rack with RP11 controller > and *three* RP03 disk drives aand 6 packs. The rack is already moved, the > drives are a separate story. Each drive weighs 415 lbs. ?So what? you might > ask. Well, they are in a cellar and three flights of stairs (10 steps, 6 steps, > and 4 steps) is too much for 3 strong guys to push one drive up the stairs. > We are now looking into another option to get the drives (and a DEC > _line_printer, also very very heavy!) up to the first floor ? Can these units be dismantled without totally losing alignment,etc. At least remove PSUs, spindle motors, etc. I once moved an RA60 (much lighter, but still too heavy for one person to carry easily) downstairs by taking it almost completely apart. Incidentally, it is surprising how much the PCBs in a full cardcage weight, it is often worth pulling them all out. I suspect an RP03 dismantled like that would still be too heavy for one person to move, but with 3 people it might be possible. I hope your upstairs floor is strong enough for them... You do not want them coming back downstairs at 9.81m/s^2 -tony Grin ? I don?t plan to check whether Mother Earth?s acceleration is still working fine. Indeed, the RA60 is heavy. Just like RA81?s, the RA60 is not good for your back, but the RA60 is worse than the RA81. The RA60 is also ?longer? compared to the RA81, and that does not help either when you hav to move an RA60 around. I really do not want to mess with the mechanical construction of the entire RP03 drive. They are too rare. I want to move them ?as is?. The only thing that can be done easily is removing the side panels. However, the ceiling in the cellar has an opening although that is currently welded by a closing lid. The system was installed in the 80ties, and it is not remembered how the system got into the cellar back then. The system has operated in that cellar for almost 20 years (PDP-11/40, RP11, Kennedy 9100 ? 3 H960 rack system). I used wooden planks (shelves) laid on the stairs, and then pushed the racks up. It was heavy, even for 3 strong guys --- OK, 2.5 ? I removed the Kennedy tape drive to make the rack less heavy. The rack with the RP11 controller was also heavy, but I really did not want to pull or dismantle anything of it. We got it out of the cellar. The 11/40 (the 21? version in BA11-F, IIRC) rack had, to my surprise an extra BA11-F with its H742 PSU ? One H742 PSU is already heavy, so two of these beast made the rack way too heavy. I ended up with disconnecting the power harness and move the 11/40 separately. That made it possible to move the rack upstairs (with sweat and some swearing ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H calling in the help of some gods ? We did try moving one RP03 by pushing it upstairs using the ?planks? trick. Three guys asking ?are we pushing?? Yes, but the drive did not move at all. The RP03 is by far the most heavy item I encountered in 20 years! We are now looking into the option to hoist the drives via the hatch in the Ceiling. Needless to say we take all possible precautions ? for people and for RP03?s. To be continued, * Henk, PA8PDP

8 years, 3 months

A new life for my LA180.

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

My rt11 sends printer output to a lpt.txt. I have not done much more regarding printing than that. I have an LA180 with serial for my actual pdp8e. B Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

8 years, 3 months

quick omnibus question

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Eugene (W2HX) > Before deleting this, someone ... should double check to make sure I am > right that the file is incorrect. ... But it seems to be backward to me. Well, it is, and it isn't. The board is drawn with the 'bottom' (in DEC nomenclature, for when the board is inserted in a backplane where the slots run vertically) at the top of the drawing, and vice versa. But, other than that, it appears to be correct - based on the keyed slots. (So, the first land, at the bottom of the drawing, which is the 'top' of a DEC board, normally, is AA. And the last - top of the drawing, 'bottom' of the card when it's in vertical slot - is DV. Etc, etc.) Noel

8 years, 3 months

quick omnibus question

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Hi friends. I am 100% new to my pdp8e and I am troubleshooting a problem. The problem is that whenever address bit 7 I asserted, I also see MD bit 4 asserted. I am hoping there is a simple short somehow between these lines somewhere. I should mention that my setup has known working boards with the exception of M8310 does not work (all of my boards were tested in another machine one by one). So I am hoping the problem noted above might be occurring on the M8310 board itself. I found a document that describes the signals on the bus located here: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/dec/pdp8/pdp8e/Omnibus_leg… I noticed that B1J (MA7) is directly adjacent to B1K (MD4). Could this be related? So I decided to pull my 8310 and check the resistance between these signals on the edge of the board. However, I cannot seem to square the signals named in the PDF and what I see on the card edge connector on the board. I am wondering if I am not understanding the PDF correctly. I have the board sitting on my table with the components facing up and the omnibus card edge is at the bottom of the card. Going from left to right, do I have connectors ABCD or is it something else? Maybe DCBA? Other than the reference PDF, is there another PDF that has a more detailed description of the bus and the signals? Thanks Eugene

8 years, 3 months

DS12887 pcb substitute with battery

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Al, I thought the problem with switching these chips was that part of the ROM code was embedded in them? I.e. it isn't just an issue of battery? Am I wrong? If I am then why not use one of the replacement chips that are available?? Thanks. -Ali -------- Original message -------- From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> Date: 1/21/17 12:12 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: DS12887 pcb substitute with battery someone just pointed this out on vcfed https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/qyNfzAMf

8 years, 3 months

DS12887 pcb substitute with battery

by Richard.Sheppard＠telus.com

I was hoping someone would make a M48Txx version for the old Suns etc. Richard Sheppard

8 years, 3 months

MSCP Qbus port layer doc sought

by mouse＠Rodents-Montreal.ORG

I'm starting to pick up my KA630 emulator again. In particular, I want to give it MSCP disk. I have various MSCP documentation files, but they talk about MSCP proper. None of them describe the Q-bus - nor even Unibus - port drivers in enough detail for me to write an emulator; most of them barely mention either Q-bus or Unibus. I find I wrote a bunch of code, and I'm fairly sure it was based on a doc file, but I cannot now find that doc file. And I find the code disagrees with NetBSD's MSCP support. I tried to use the NetBSD driver as documentation but end up with the response ring doing unexpected things. So, I'm looking for the Qbus port specification. One of the text files I found on bitsavers (a DEC-internal TMSCP document) says "See UNIBUS/QBUS Storage Systems Port Specification for additional detail". I also found a message to a simh mailing list, quoting an RQDX3 document which, in its "Applicable Documents" list, has o UQSSP (Unibus/Qbus Storage Systems Port Specification) Those sound like what I want. Anyone happen to know where I might be able to find such a thing? /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

8 years, 3 months

A new life for my LA180.

by ed＠groenenberg.net

Not so much newsworthy, but 2 weeks ago I stumbled by accident on the serial option for the LA180 (Decprinter I). My offer was accepted and I got the card 2 days ago. I installed it this afternoon and after configuring it and checking the jumpers on the main board, it now works as a serial printer. Tomorrow I'm going to connect it with simh and see if printing jobs will get processed as well. Ed -- Ik email, dus ik besta. BTC : 1Lk6141nvDKPxtCa5erfFyovsoJN2LKqNJ

8 years, 3 months

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