Care and feeding of some Lisp machines (TI Explorer and Xerox Star)

On 14 Sep 2020, at 20:34, null <ian.finder at gmail.com> wrote: Regarding the mouse- it is a black Mouse Systems optical mouse, terminated in a two row IDC connector. If desired, I can take internal pictures and send along the pinout. Let me know. > On Sep 14, 2020, at 09:01, Josh Dersch via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > ?On Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 6:35 AM Michael Engel via cctech < > cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> for a planned exhibition, I am thinking of restoring two of the machines >> to working state again that are in storage here for decades: >> >> - A TI Explorer ("Sperry" labeled) >> and >> - A Xerox Star (no idea if ours actually ran Interlisp or one of the >> other OSes for the Star/Dandelion) >> >> There is "sen?s dandelion restoration blog" at http://dandelion.sen.cx/ >> (which seems to be very helpful to test the power supply) and, of >> course, lots of documents and software on bitsavers. I have quite a bit >> of experience with TI1500 machines, so the Explorer feels rather >> familiar, but I have never worked with Xerox machines before. >> >> Before I start to disassemble and test the machines, I would be >> interested to hear about specific problems you might have experienced >> bringing up one of these two machines, preferably those on the >> unexpected side. >> >> Some things I could not find so far are the mouse and the console cable >> for the Explorer. It seems that the mouse is related to MouseSystems >> optical mice used on older Sun/SGI systems (but the interface might be >> different?). The fiber optics cable for the display (TI part number >> 2233200 according to the field service manual) might be another problem >> - if you know any details about this, I would be very interested... >> >> Another thing that is also missing is the mouse pad for the three button >> optical Xerox mouse. Is it possible that an optical mouse pad for >> Sun/SGI machines is compatible? >> >> Best wishes, >> Michael >> >> > I've restored a Star/1108 (and wrote a Star emulator) and am in the middle > of an Explorer restoration, I'm happy to help out where I can. > > I'd recommend picking up an MFM Emulator (https://www.pdp8.net/mfm/mfm.shtml) > along with the SA1000 adapter for same, for use with the Star. The > original disks are getting more difficult to keep running, and it's also a > lot more convenient for switching between different operating systems, etc. > > Remove the sound-deadening foam from the panels of the system, it's getting > crumbly and isn't going to do you any favors to leave it in place. I've > found the power supplies to be fairly reliable. One issue is weak picture > tubes in the displays -- the monitors are powered on with the system and > have no separate off switch, so they tended to get a lot of hours put on > them. We had good luck with a tube rejuvenator on the one we restored at > LCM. > > The Star mouse pad can be recreated with a laser printer (I've used this: > http://www.digibarn.com/collections/devices/xerox-mousepad/index.html, and > there's a postscript file floating around out there...). Or any surface > with a fine pattern on it seems to work pretty well; I was able to make it > work on a speckled countertop and the pant leg of my jeans at one point. > It's a lot more forgiving than the Sun mice which need the fixed grid of > the metal mouse pads. > > For the Explorer, there are a number of r fa line filter caps in the > system, on the power supply board as well as on a separate board near the > rear of the chassis. I suggest replacing these immediately as they like to > let out smoke. The optical cable is extremely rare and despite some > valiant efforts we haven't found an equivalent, or new-old-stock > replacements. A friend of mine is working on retrofitting modern optics, > and has made some great progress. The mouse is indeed a standard Mouse > Systems, I'm missing mine at the moment and haven't yet gotten to the point > of adapting a mouse to replace it. I suspect it's equivalent to the M2 > used on the Sun-2 and LMI Lambda systems. > > Media for the Explorer is another question that I'm hoping to answer soon. > There are disk images from the Meroko emulator but my understanding is that > they are incomplete. Bitsavers has QIC tape images but I have yet to try > them. The interface on the Explorer is SCSI but I haven't had luck booting > it from a SCSI2SD w/Meroko images loaded. The disk boxes contain an Emulex > SCSI->MFM bridge, so use of Dave's MFM emulator might make sense here as > well. > > If you have disks in your Explorer, let me know -- capturing an image of > their contents would be extremely useful, and the original Maxtor drives > are not long for this world. > > Hope that helps a bit, happy to answer any questions... or try anyway. > - Josh