Hi Guys
I just got back from the meeting at the silk screen shop.
They are going to start by printing ten PDP8/e panels with the details
that are common to both A and B.
I'm sending them a couple of overlays. One to convert the common panel
to an A Type and the other to make it into a B type.
Four A type and Three B type are sold. This means I have three slots
left that can become either an A or a B.
Same goes for 8/f and 8/m . They will print up to the common point and
an overlay will turn it into either an /f or /m
This time the stock will be a bit better. Two /f have gone so eight
slots are available to become a /f or a /m
So to be able to make an 8/e Type A or Type B takes
One precut perspex sheet,
One screen for each color (two)
One screen for the white
One matte finish coating
Two screens for the overlays
One screen for the lamp view ports on the back.
Total six silk screens
Then I'll add in packing and shipping cost.
I'll freeze the order on Monday
Then work out the unit price and add in packing and shipping cost.
Then call for payment from those without prepaid orders.
So there are three 8/e A or B slots and eight 8/f or 8/m slots
available until Monday
Rod Smallwood
While there are documents out there that describe the function of the
Educomp/Quodata TSC8-75 Timeshare System Controller for Omnibus PDP 8
machines, I have searched high and low, and there doesn't seem to be
/any/ schematics for it anywhere.
I know this was a proprietary board that did some pretty interesting
things to trap IOT, JMP, JSR, and HLT/OSR instructions on the PDP
8/e/f/m/a machines and provide additional capabilities versus DEC's
Memory Extension and Timeshare Control board.
I have a fantasy of being able to run ETOS on real PDP 8/e hardware, but
I don't have one of these boards, and they seem to be pretty much
unobtainium.
There are a few of them out there, but obviously, the owners of these
aren't in the mood to submit them for reverse engineering. Perhaps
someone out there has already done this, or someone has documentation on
the board that may include schematics that simply hasn't scanned it yet.
Bitsavers comes up with nothing under the DEC archives, and there's no
sign of Quodata or Educomp folders.
I have read the descriptions of the function of the board, and the IOTs
that make it do its things, but I just don't have the expertise on the
guts of the Omnibus PDP 8 machines to be able to take this information
and create a design for a board that performs these functions. I've
also looked at the code in SimH that emulates the functionality of the
board, but again, it isn't enough information for me to be able to
figure out how to implement it in hardware.
In any case, I think it'd be interesting to see if one of these boards
could be reproduced.
I've found some old ClassicCMP list archives that mention some stuff
about ETOS documentation and folks that worked for Educomp/Quodata that
were involved in the creation of ETOS and this board, but the thread
died over 10 years ago.
I am probably wishing for something that doesn't exist, but I figured
I'd ask anyway, as maybe someone has stumbled across some of this stuff
and just hasn't made it public yet.
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Museum
http://oldcalculatormuseum.com
> From: Rod Smallwood
> The list seems very quiet to-day. I have had only one post this
> morning. Anybody know why?
They're all tired out from the large amount of traffic over the past couple
of days? ;-)
But seriously, it's not quite 9AM yet now, on the US East Coast (and I would
guess the plurality of list members are in the US), so that's almost
certainly part of it, too.
Noel
Hi Guys
As per previous update I'm off to my silk screen printers
today.
Thanks to lots of help from list members I have identified most of the
different
PDP8/e panel types that exist.
1. PDP-8/e Type A:
Selector switch starts from _vertical (12 o'clock)_ position
There _is _a white line around the selector switch area.
There are _no _vertical dividers between groups of three lamps
2. PDP-8/e Type B:
Selector switch starts from _-15deg (11 o'clock)_ position
There is _no_ white line around the selector switch area.
There _are_ vertical dividing lines between groups of three lamps
3. PDP-8/f:
White border and masthead with DEC logo and address
Layout differs from 8/e but lamps and switches retain their
positions
Otherwise color scheme as per 8/e and address
Corners on text and color area are rounded off.
There is a pdp8/f logo to the right of the RUN light
4. PDP-8/m:
White border and masthead with DEC logo and address
Layout differs from 8/e but lamps and switches retain their
positions
Otherwise color scheme as per 8/e
Corners on text and color area are rounded off.
There is a pdp8/m logo to the right of the RUN light
5. PDP-8/lab (Anybody want one of these?)
6. PDP-8/industrial (Anybody want one of these?)
All panels share a common basic clear plastic blank with pre-cut switch
positions
I intend to have both 8/e and 8/f plus 8/m (ie two designs) printed with
just shared features.
The detail that makes them different will be added later.
I'll ask for a matte finish.
I'll tighten up the QA on how the lines delineate the holes.
I'll sort out the lock and switch hole positions
(coordinates from the cutouts would help if you have them)
*_Work in progress_*
11/4X,11/5X,11/6X and 11/7X
*_Under consideration_*
Best way to produce Large, Custom and non - DEC panels
I'm sure I have missed things off and just as sure somebody will tell me!
Rod Smallwood
it would only be reasonable if you needed it to compete a display that
used that particular cased unit. adn you really had to have it...
otherwise as a 33 it is vastly overpriced!
Ed#
In a message dated 10/29/2015 2:27:54 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
unclefalter at yahoo.ca writes:
I was kind of eyeing this too but the shipping is a problem. I didn't
know Teletype did the 'private label' kind of thing?
So $2500 is reasonable for something like that?
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of David
Williams
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 1:02 PM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Honeywell "Teletype"
>
> That looks pretty clean. I haven't seen one in the UK at anywhere near
that price. Looking at US prices its almost worth shipping if I could find a
set of 50hz gears....
>
They do pop up now and then. I actually purchased mine though Ebay, last
year for ?300. The seller originally had it listed for ?500 but had no
bidders.
Cheers,
Dave
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2015.0.6172 / Virus Database: 4450/10864 - Release Date: 10/21/15
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
Looking for help identifying these 2 pieces of Massey Dickinson equipment.
I was told this machine is a trainer of sorts, but have my doubts:
https://goo.gl/photos/ktBMTiYXxLZd8dH1A
But per the research I have done, the only reference of Massey Dickinson
and PDP8s are for Data Acquisition, I assume that is what this machine
is for (was interfaced to a PDP8i): https://goo.gl/photos/cqwTHmb6QhGKfgwy9
Thanks everyone!
-Nick
I'm curious. This auction appears to be for an ASR33 in a Honeywell
box. If so $1200 is way too much for a funny case unless you like
plastic with "Honeywell" on it.
Any ideas?
RARE-Vintage-Honeywell-Teletype-Machine
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201442852051
Thanks
Jim
> From: Ben Sinclair
> A while back I was talking to someone else who suggested using a ribbon
> cable from the controller to directly inside the drive.
I've heard that suggestion too...
> That technically will fit if I remove the ribbon inside the drive that
> goes to the external connectors, but then I won't have a terminator
> installed. I do have a terminator though!
The cable from the CPU would have to have two connectors on the RL02 end;
one would plug into the drive's logic board, and the other to the outbound
connector, where you can plug in the terminator.
AFAIK that cable is purely a bus (i.e. no radial per-drive wires), so you
should just be able to run it to the second connector, no issue. However,
I'm too lazy to check to make sure that's absolutely 100% accurate. :-)
> I think what I really need, since I don't have a cab kit or anything,
> is a bc80m, which I believe is a ribbon with a ground lug on the
> controller side, and whatever type of connector the drive uses on the
> other end.
I think you mean a Berg connector which will plug directly into the RLV11,
not "ground lug", right? Yes, if you don't have a cab kit, that's the cable
you need. It's not a ribbon cable, but a round cable (the connectors the
drives use only come in regular cable form, not ribbon cable - AFAIK).
> Not that I can even find a cable like that anywhere currently...
RLOx cables of _any_ kind are very hard to find. There are discussions under
way about making new ones; there is a supply (used) of the wierd-ass
connector that plugs into the back of the drive which could be used.
> I unfortunately don't have an extender card...
Others have pointed you at Douglas; here's the page for all their
extender cards:
http://www.douglas.com/index.php/off-the-shelf-solutions/bread-boards-by-fu…
which includes a hex, but those aren't any use (that I can think of) to
people with QBUS machines.
(Useful things to have it you're trying to maintain a vintage PDP-11; one is,
perforce, forced to become one's own Field Circus person - unless you're lucky
and happen to live close to a PDP-11 hardware expert who's willing to come
salve one's machine.)
> From: Johnny Billquist
> Well, not important. We're now beyond that point. The boards are
> working well enough that we can address them...
Well, but he might still have a problem on them. Although fixing such would
be a challenge...
Noel
> From: Ben Sinclair
> the bc80m cable .. which I believe is a ribbon type of connector with a
> ground strap on one end, then a round cable to the berg connector for
> the back of the RL02. I think it's the cable pictured here:
> http://www.cosam.org/computers/dec/pdp11-23/20080403.html
Yes, that's the cable. But there's no ribbon cable anywhere in it: the
individual wires from the round cable go directly to the Berg (aka Du Pont)
female connector, which plugs into the male Berg header on the board.
The other end does not have a Berg connector, it's some sort of wierd-ass
connector that I don't know the proper name for. (The RK0[67] also uses them,
and I think maybe the MASSBUS too?)
> The RLV11 and RLV12 seem hard to find, at least on eBay
They come by occasionally. I can probably find an RLV12 for you if you
want/need one.
> so fixing this one might be the way to go!
Fixing an RLV11 is not for hardware beginners. Think logic analyzer, at
least.
> From: Johnny Billquist
> I would primarily expect 16 bits addresses to be used on a KDF-11, but
> I could be wrong.
11/23 ODT addresses are always 18-bit (whether the MMU chip is installed or
not); I don't know if attempting to look at memory above 56KB works without
the MMU, though.
> Early revisions only supported 18 bit addressing, but later models
> supported 22 bit addressing. But how that is reflected in the micro-ODT
> on a KDF-11 I don't know.
I already bitched about this! Although it supports Q22 _on the bus_, their
ODT only supports Q18. There's no way to fiddle with high memory, except
via program!
> I don't even know if it's actually micro-ODT, or some more primitive
> console mode on that CPU.
AFAIK, it's the same ODT as all the other QBUS -11's (03, 73, etc - although
the /03 has the 'L' bootloader command that none of the others do, along with
a couple of other odd minor ones like '@').
Noel
> From: Ben Sinclair
> According to the Microcomputer Interfaces Handbook, my H9273 backplane
> should be all ABCD.
Yup, that was one of the first things I checked - whilst realizing that if
it wasn't, it was too late... :-)
> Am I correct in that I shouldn't have any problem using the RLV11 in
> that backplane?
Not that I am aware of.
Noel
