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101090 discussions

Building up the 8E system, questions - advice - partsRequest

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I restored my 8E cpu to running condition years ago, but never got around to the rest of the rack. Mainly to reclaim floor space, I'm getting the peripherals I always meant to go with that system into the dual rack and wanted to ask a few questions... Dual bay H967, items to go in are PDP-8E, PC04, TU56, RK05, and possibly an RX01/02. Pictures at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25079374039 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25152416940 But the rack has two nice looking doors, example: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/22605790200 (the TU10 and TM11 is being traded off, so the left rack in that picture is an empty one now but I still have both "doors"). I'd like to keep the two doors, but will not be able to fit all the devices above in. May just hook up an "external" RX02 (I have one in a DEC roll-around cart), or perhaps one would fit behind one of those mustard colored doors, I dunno. Hate covering a nice peripheral up behind a door. Might put everything in the left rack, get rid of the bottom door, and just use standard filler panels. Current plan is cpu in right bay, pc04 underneath. Left bay would be TU56 & RK05 (and RX02 if I lose the door). What would you all do for something that is as period-correct as possible? I looked closely at the sloped panels at the top of each cabinet. It looks like the yellow trim/logo is actually a plate that slides into the bezel. The one on the right is just yellow, but has a white border screened on it. The one on the left has no plate, so it's just "white". What is the chance that anyone has one of those yellow plates, perhaps one that actually says "DEC" on it? I'd be highly interested. Failing that, at least one that matches the other (yellow with a white border). Anyone have one laying around? I'd have never thought I could run out of official DEC slides, but it appears that I have (at least for older DEC items). I need to rack the RK05 and the TU56. On the RK05 - does anyone have a spare set of slides or can I definitely just use RL02 slides (which I have lots of)? I have the wide grey inner slides on the RK05 but no outers and I noticed just one of the inner slides has a gold L-catch release on it so I'm wondering if there's anything special about RK05 slides. Thanks in advance! J

9 years, 9 months

PDP-8/e - Front panel switch reproductions and front panel PCB?

by anders.k.nelson＠gmail.com

Hi all, I found switch levers and a mounting frame design ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:360853) that I would like to have casted with molded-in color, close to the originals as reasonable. Has anyone already done this that I can simply buy from? If any injection molds have been built I'd love to put those to work. Would it be better to just paint a 3D print of these? Also has anyone created the front panel PCB design? I use EAGLE and would love to at least have a CAD outline from which to start as I build my emulated PDP-8/e. Pretty much like the SBC6120 but emulated on a 32-bit micro as opposed to the HD6120. I await your thoughts! -- Anders Nelson +1 (517) 775-6129 www.erogear.com

9 years, 9 months

PDP-10 programming [was RE: Dumb Terminal games (was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine)]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

From: David Griffith Sent: Friday, February 26, 2016 4:05 PM > One of my ongoing wish projects is to learn to program a pdp-10 so I can > port Frotz to it. The canonical textbook is Ralph Gorin's _Introduction to DECSYSTEM-20 Assembly Language Programming_ (Digital Press, 1981). Lots of examples, well thought out presentation. It's a shame that Ralph's book has become so rare. (Seriously, who does the seller asking $1,441.25 for a copy think he's talking to???) Probably remaindered in the 1990s at any library that had a copy. If you were near Seattle, I'd say make an appointment and I'd give you an afternoon's worth of overview. Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

9 years, 9 months

Techno-savvy...

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

What is a techno-savvy student? Can classic computers possibly give an answer? I used early microcomputers in my electronics classroom I taught in the 70?s. Computers back then were rather primitive, not much better than calculators, but did mimic human learning ? well maybe not advanced enough to deal with calculus! But they did help with the tedious tasks of generating random #s to start a particular process - a game for instance. Maybe not intellectually challenging nonetheless doing a required job leading today to sophisticated games that do more than entertain. Back then students were put in groups to build a work station employing a Commodore 64 or Apple II or Heathkit H8. Fund-raising bought these computers at the school board was reluctant to spend money and or political capital that only benefited the few though we did install a workstation in the library ? what wonder that created as it was small in comparison to the PDP-8. So what is a techno-savvy student now: Conversant in using a technological gadget to enhance his/her life? Or being able to build a computing workstation in high school? Or for simply possessing a basic understanding of how electronic/computing technology makes life more bearable, less boring? I don?t have the answers though being 64 I?ve lived through the evolution of computing technology and seeing how it?s affected my life good or otherwise! Looking forward to using my old computers, Coleco ADAM and Haethkit H8, if I can keep them going by procuring parts, as my dear friend who has them works tirelessly and I contribute when I get up to the big city in keeping them functioning. Such are the joys of classic computing. :)

9 years, 9 months

PDP8 front panel - Shipping.

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys I have now seen the production batch of 8/e A and B. panels. They will ship next week after inspection and packing. 8/f and 8/m will be next up. If you have placed an order for any of the above please confirm your shipping address. When I switched to the textured front I ordered a few more blank panels. Depending on the yeild after final inspection there may be a few extras available. Regards Rod

9 years, 9 months

Free Sinclair QL emulator

by lproven＠gmail.com

While experimenting with Sinclair emulators on Ubuntu last night, I made 2 discoveries which might interest folk here. First, the author of perhaps the premium Sinclair QL emulator for Windows, QPC, has made it unrestricted freeware. The news is from mid-2014 but I'd missed it. Both QPC1 and QPC2 are now available free of charge. I found this news via Dilwyn Jones' site, here: http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/emu/ This is the direct download & info site for QPC: http://www.kilgus.net/qpc/index.html They come bundled with SMSQ/e, the final-generation QL OS, derived >from QDOS, complete with bootable hard disk images. The second discovery was that QPC2 for Windows installs and runs flawlessly under WINE on 64-bit Ubuntu. :-) -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

9 years, 9 months

Needs help w/ diagnosing and hopefully repairing of a DEC Tape Drive

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I have two TSZ07 here. As they were sold as "for parts" obviously they both needed some repair. One of the two had severe mechanical problems. One motor had a loose unglued magnet inside, so there was a motor fault error, and the motor couldn't rotate freely, making a rattle noise inside when operated by hand. Of course it was better not to act on that before repair, to avoid to damage the magnet. To repair it I needed to unscrew the reel (in my case the front reel with the loading mechanism to hold the interchangeable reel with the tape), unscrew the motor from the frame, then remove the tacho (very delicate!) and then finally open the motor. The loose magnet appeared to be originally glued to the metal housing with cyanoacrilic glue, so I positioned it by hand aligning it with the remaining glue traces on the housing, held it in place with a clamp tool then finally added new abundant glue all around, letting it to flow under the magnet. Then waited for 24 hours and reassembled. The tacho wheel needed to be cleaned, as the very thin steel growth with some oxide in the small holes, not being optically open enough to work. You can see how this wheel is delicate... maximum care not to bend or crack it! It worked! PS= check very carefully your PSU, as both drives had severe problems on it, they are very prone to fail! One simply ceased to operate after some time, and needed some component replacement to work again. The second one did worst! It did fail beginning suddenly to put out pulsed voltage (8-10V peak) on the 5V. I turned it off within a couple of seconds, but unluckly it fried some ICs on the digital board... It had to change two Z80-serie ICs on the board, to let it finally work... And of course to repair the PSU and test it for some hours with load before testing it again with the real hardware. Andrea

9 years, 9 months

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 07:21:13 -0500 (EST) > From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) > Subject: Re: PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date > differences?? OEM? > > That's an -11/15, then. The -11/20 has a KA11 processor. So the front panel > just says "pdp-11"? > > Noel > It was an OEM system and has a Applied Color Systems, Inc. front panel. The system is missing all of the boards and backplanes. Someday we will find enough parts to put it back together. -- Michael Thompson

9 years, 9 months

Precision Instruments PI1200 7 track tape drive, interest anyone?

by gerry＠absoluteimaging.ca

Hello Mattis, We do have interest in the 7 track drive. Is it still available? Gerry Schlosser Absolute Imaging Inc. Suite 400, 1011-1st Street S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2R 1J2 Gerry at absoluteimaging.ca 1-403-209-6846

9 years, 9 months

Needs help w/ diagnosing and hopefully repairing of a DEC Tape Drive

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

In my continuing quest for a 9-track drive I got my hands on DEC TSZ07-CA w/ a narrow SCSI interface that was supposedly "tested working". On arrival to me I found it wrapped in a thin layer of bubble wrap w/ some broken piece of Styrofoam thrown in for "packing". As one can imagine the drive did not farewell. The outer desktop housing is cracked in multiple places but still serviceable. The drive itself came with parts rattling on the inside. I opened it up, cleaned things up a bit, and put things back together so that now the drive powers up, starts self test, and then errors out w/ a "50 - Motor Fault" error. I have checked the wires and reseated everything that I can see. I've also cleaned all the sensors, blown out the dirt, etc. etc. The problem persists so I am going to assume a component was damaged in the shipping. I ran the tests indicated in the tech manual and I get the following results: generally the supply motor starts to turn but stops even before making a full revolution. Incidentally if I manually turn the reel it turns fine and the tape securing arms open and close appropriately. When running the dx tests sometimes I can get the uptake motor to spin up at full speed and once even had the supply motor spin up at full speed. Per the tech manual if restarting the system does not make the problem go away the next step would be to replace the motor.... Google fu has not turned up much - so before I declare this a very heavy paper weight anyone have any ideas? Thanks! -Ali

9 years, 9 months

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