SIX Button BA23 Front Panel

Good idea to use a guard. For the work I do on RT-11, I normally turn off the READ ONLY button when I specifically want to change a file on the hard drive. RT-11 itself is quite happy to run with even the system drive in READ ONLY mode. I was not aware that the 6 button panel was so wide spread. While I have probably seen at least a few dozen BA23 boxes (actually not that many I admit), none had a 6 button panel. When I needed to copy an RD51 to a second RD51 drive, avoiding a copy to tape in the middle saved 90% of the time. As Allison confirmed, drive 0 MUST be DS3 and drive 1 MUST be DS4. The first time that a copy was attempted from DU0: to DU1:, both were set at DS3 and the format was lost Not many, but I am one. Since the response has been far greater than I expected, I will note my simple extra circuit. I inserted a 10" temporary 10 pin cable into the circuit (to the front panel of the BA23) with a female header at one end and the male header at the other end so that the change was VERY temporary. Within the extra piece of cable, I soldered line 5 to line 1, line 6 to line 2 leaving the portion leading the the front panel on the BA23 hanging (unattached to anything). If I remember correctly, grounding line 5 and line 6 did the same, but after more than 10 years, I am probably wrong and the guess is only that!! I did this over ten years ago without a schematic, so I forget the tests that I did. Since it worked, I assumed that the single switch was able to carry the extra current for at least a reasonable time. If you have the information, can you describe the circuits that were soldered and the size of the resistors? In addition, would Tony (I guess this is twice that I have taken your name in vain - I apologize) be able to suggest the additional circuits needed to add the green and orange LEDs to show the same status that the 6 button front panel for the BA23 shows? As for the extra current on the 12 volt line for the hard drives, it is STRONGLY suggested that when two hard drives are used, an additional PC power supply be used for just the hard drives so that the BA23 power supply is not overloaded. I doubt that this would be a problem if the hard drives are used for less than an hour. But for anything more than an hour, it does not seem to be worth the risk It is also necessary to attach a TK50 / TK70 to the internal power supply. An additional PC power supply does not work, I have never tested with the RX50 except as attached to the internal power supply. If the arrangement is to be permanent, I tend to place the hard drives inside the BA23 and the RX50 / TK70 outside the BA23. The fans inside the BA23 should provide the cooling for the hard drives. However, when I use ESDI hard drives with either a VT103, a Ba23 or a BA123, the hard drives are always attached to an additional PC power supply and separate fans are used for the ESDI hard drives. Likewise, but I believe a BA123 is a bit more cumbersome to carry from one building to another. Otherwise, the back plane is much more accessible. Jerome Fine