3 Nov
2012
3 Nov
'12
12:30 p.m.
Hi Earl,
I have a stack of seagate drives that were spares from a field service
company several years ago. They were tested and sealed in static bags
before ther were surplussed out. Feel free to send a wish list. I'll
try to put a list together this weekend.
If we don't connect by Monday night, things will have to wait for
awhile because I'm going in for surgury again on Tuesday.
Thanks, Paul
Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Earl Evans <earl at retrobits.com> wrote:
Greetings,
I love the dual RL02 drives on my PDP-11/23+. It's great fun to hear them
spin up, and they are a neat conversation piece. However, I fear that
ongoing operation will eventually lead to their demise (as with all
things). I'd like to move to a (slightly) newer technology.
My goal is to:
1. Purchase a Seagate ST-225 or ST-251 hard drive in working condition.
2. Build a cable and interface assembly as described at
http://home.windstream.net/engdahl/rqdx3.htm, and put the drive in an
external case/PSU.
3. Properly insert my RQDX3 (in my stock, but not in the machine) into the
PDP, and connect to the drive.
4. Use the ZRQCH0 utility in XXDP (perhaps loaded from a TU58 emulator) to
format the drive as a RD31 or RD32 (depending on the Seagate model).
5. Determine how to boot from RT-11, and perhaps TSX-Plus.
Is this doable? Will the KDF11-BA built-in bootstrapper ROM boot from a
RQDX3? Also, my RQDX3 card is assumed working, but untested. Is there any
way to test the controller board functionality without having a drive
attached?
Thanks for any thoughts!
- Earl