12 Jan
2003
12 Jan
'03
1:21 p.m.
Guys,
After fighting (with no success) my 11/780 again today and wasting a
buttload of electricity doing it, it looks like I'm going to have to bite
the bullet and create a diagnostic application to help me figure what is
wrong with the beast.
I originally thought about writing a JAVA-based application that would
communicate with the console (card on the 750 and 11/03 on the 780) and by
using the minimal troubleshooting commands available, and at least isolate
what sections of the startup routines were failing or examine the memory
space to figure out what may or may not be responding or is out-of-whack.
I would appreciate it if anyone here had some documentation for the 780
outside of the following manuals:
Diagnostic System User's Guide
Hardware Users Guide
Remote Diagnostic Option Guide
... available for purchase - please let me know. These manuals I already
have, and if I can't get any clear documentation describing the routines
that the 11/03 is executing, then I'll have to manually (with the help of
this application) disassemble the code to determine what's not happy.
The built in console diagnostics of the 780 do not really give a clear
enough picture to find out exactly what has failed just by looking at the
program counter value when the 11/03 stops during the boot process (at
least with the troubleshooting docs I currently have).
I was hoping to create an application that would simulate the boot process,
but by examining/depositing register contents as the 11/03 would normally
execute them, and provide more detailed information.
Of course, this application, being serial based, could certainly extend
beyond the realms of the 11/780 and 11/750. You could conceivably deposit
boot programs into memory if your boot media fails, or even extend the
application to work with other computers/manufacturers as well.
Any suggestions or additional comments would be welcome. I would probably
make this application available under a GPL- style license, even though I
do not agree with Mr. Stallman's religious beliefs regarding commercial
application development...
(but that is a different story for another day)
- Matt
P.S. - Gunther - did you get your 780 running yet? Hopefully I can help you
out as well.
Matthew Sell
Programmer
On Time Support, Inc.
www.ontimesupport.com
(281) 296-6066
Join the Metrology Software discussion group METLIST!
http://www.ontimesupport.com/subscribe_t&c.htmlhtml.
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler
Many thanks for this tagline to a fellow RGVAC'er...