DEC Lab 11/40

On Thursday I took possession of a DEC Lab 11/40 system. I've not had time to clean it up and check it out yet, but it was reputedly working when last used (well, I suppose it would have been, wouldn't it?). Actually, that's not quite true, as I'm told someone plugged a terminal in the wrong way, apparently blew something up, and got no output -- I hope they mean something simple like the RS232 line drivers have gone. The system consists of two racks about 4' high. One contains the 11/40 in a 12U box, with a power controller below and an LPS11 above. The other contains a pair of RK05 drives and power controller. There's a GT11 display on the top of the 11/40 rack, and a TS03 magtape unit on the other. The system came with stacks of documentation but only one RK05 pack. I've not had time to make a thorough inventory of the docs yet, but they seem to include most of the processor/memory/interface engineering drawings and maintenance manuals, and something like four complete or almost complete sets of RT-11 manuals, for various vintages from 2.0 to 4.0. Also a pile of printed MAINDEC listings (no microfiche, sadly. Anybody got any microfiche they want to pass on?) I've not had time to do anything yet, apart from check the boards in the 11/40 (pretty standard, with EIS but not FIS, no stack limit register or MMU, no KM11, but it does have the KW11-L programmable LTC). It has a DL11-A (20mA interface for console) and a DL11-something (RS232), 2 x 16KW core sets in one backplane, a DUP11-A synchronous interface (what can I use this for?), a TMB11 tape controller, and an RK11-D controller for the drives. The last backplane in the box contains cards not listed in the Field Guide (neither are the memory cards in this machine, so I'll send Megan an update) but I think they're for the GT11: M7014-YA, A320, and M7013, all hex-height. I've had a very cursory look over the machine, and the only things I notice that want some attention before I think about powering it up are a section of frayed insulation on the power loom to the BA-11 box, a lot of dust everywhere (how surprising!), and some kinks in the unibus cable that connects to the RK05s. I plan to vacuum out the dust, ix the insulation, and check the PSUs before I do anything else. I'm no Unibus or RK05 expert; most of my -11s are Q-bus. What else should I look for before I go too far? I mentioned I only got one disk pack -- it's an original RT-11 distribution and I don't want to risk that in an unknown drive. Anyway, I know for a fact it's been dropped (the owner told me). I have since acquired 4 more packs, three of which came from the same machine originally. Anything I should look out for before trying them? I thought it might be wise to check the RK05 heads and perhaps clena them with IPA before I do anything else. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York