I've just got hold of a pair of PDP-11/35s that have 110V power supplies.
What is the collectives view on the best way of running these in the UK?
Which mounting box ? (there's a 10.5" one (BA11-K IIRC) where the PCBs go
in from the top with a PSU on the back or a 21" one (BA11-F ?) where the
PCBs go in from the left side and with a separate H742 PSU in the rack).
Do you have any periperhals for them?
THere are 2 main issues. Voltage and Frequency.
AFAIK the PSUS in these mahcines all have trnasofomres with 2 primary
windings which are wired in series for 230V and parallel for 115V. The
fans are 115V and run off the trnasformer primary (acting as an
autotransformer)_ for 230V mains. There may also be a small transformer
as part of the power control circuitry.
Looking at hte printset nad compairing the wiring for 115V or 230V mains
shold tell you what to do. I can take a look if you let me know eaactly
what you have.
The differnece in mains frequency is not an issue for the CPU unit. Some
peripehrals most certianly care abvout it (the RK05 disk, for exmaple,
the disk speed is set my the mains frequency, so there's a pulley change
if you go between 50Hz and 60Hz).
There is a 'line time clock' (I think it's an option in the 11/35, but
most have it). This generates an interrupt every (half?-) cycle of the
mains. Most OSes have a configuration option for 50Hz mains, there's no
hardware change.
That sort of trnasofmrer is very useful!. However, there is an electrical
differeice between its output and normal US mains, namely that US mains
has one side (neutraL) connected to safety grounmd, these trnasofmers
have the centre tap of the secondary connected to groud. This is not an
issue with PDP11s, though. THey will run fine from such a trnasformer
(I've done it for testing).
or can I change the setup of the PSU to work from
220V?
I suspect you can rewire the PSU, You will not have to replace the large
transoformer or the fans, you might have to replace the little
trnasofrmrer for the power control.
-tony