27 Jan
2011
27 Jan
'11
8:22 p.m.
All this talk of folks needing an RL0x controller for a Unibus machine
got me to thinking - I have a PDP 8/e in nice shape, and a few known
good RK05 drives, but no RK8E controller boardset. It gets tiring
running the machine off of paper take or RX01 floppies. =20
Youdo realise, I assupe, that an RK05 used with a PDP8 needs 16 sector
packs, which are a lot harder to find than the 12 sector ones used with
PDP11s. There are har dectored packs, the number of sectors is determined
by the number of slits in a ring on the hub. Good luck if you want to try
re-making that ;-)
Anyone out there have one (or Plessey or other equivalents) that they
might be willing to sell? I have all of the cables needed, including
the paddle cards that plug into the Omnibus to connect up the drives,
just need the three board set in known operational condition.
I am a little confused here...
The I/O connecotrs on the RK05 are the normal DEC connector blocks, a
dual-height slot, actualy, You interconnect multiple drives using Unibus
cables amnd put na M930 terminator (original Unibus terminator) in the
last drive.
On a PDP8/e, the drives are not dirrectly connected ot the Omnibus
backplane/ There's a cable consisting of 2 ribbon cables with BERG
connecotrs at one end and a dual-height DEC board at the otther. The
board plugs into the first drive, the BERGs plug into one of the boards o
nthe RK8e. IIRC, there are actually several versions of that cables with
different (if any) circuitry on the PCB, but I think it's possible to
convert one to another.
Is that the cable you have?
-tony