23 Mar
2001
23 Mar
'01
2:15 a.m.
The LCD package for LRP is at:
http://lrp.steinkuehler.net/Packages/LCDProc.htm
I might be able to help you with parts for your RK11-C restoration. You have a working
classic-8?
Brian.
I even have an LRP package for interfacing an LCD to my router so you can
watch the IP traffic.
Love to get a URL to that. I run LRP myself, and set them up for friends
with cable modems about every other month.
Way cool project BUT the display is still in the
bubble wrap. Same problem,
little time.
It's all about priorities. I have a set of back burner projects that have been
there for ten plus years, but they are still there (RK11-C restoration, PDP-8/i
re-restoration, TU-58 emulator, Straight-8 cleaning (printer's ink), and such).
-ethan
Brian Roth
Network Services
First Niagara Bank
(716) 625-7500 X2186
Brian.Roth(a)FirstNiagaraBank.com
23 Mar
23 Mar
7:28 a.m.
New subject: RK11-C and Straight-8 restoration
--- brian roth <brian.roth(a)firstniagarabank.com> wrote:
The LCD package for LRP is at:
http://lrp.steinkuehler.net/Packages/LCDProc.htm
OK. I already know about that one. I wrote the PIC-n-LCD driver
for LCDproc.
I might be able to help you with parts for your RK11-C
restoration.
It's not so much parts as time and docs. I may have the RK11-C prints (got a
lot of B-sized drawings), but if I don't, the first order of business is
identifying which PSU it calls for, seeing if I have one, and fashioning a
substitute if I don't. I got it in 1984 from Software Results before I was
hired there, along with a pair of drives, one RK05J and one RK05F. I
proceeded, in my youthful ignorance, to crash the RK05F by messing with the
platter before it had fully spun down. I eventally even got the cabinet this
whole mess came out of, but I do not know if I ever got the PSU. I also have
an RKV11D (and I think an RK11D, too) for "real" work with RK05 drives.
You have a working classic-8?
Another score from SRC was a pair of Straight-8s. One appears on the back
of the large-format comic "CPU Wars" by Charles Andres. A photographer
moved the modules around so it "looked nicer for the picture". The other
was running a typesetting rig (I think via this PA-60 device I have that
is a) made of the same modules and b) covered in ink, but that I have been
unable to match up with any documentation). I have never applied power
to either unit, waiting for the day I can give them a proper shakedown and
PSU checkout (old/dry caps, etc). The PSUs are massive - +10V and -15V at
several amps each. At least now, some of the docs are available for download.
In 1985 when I got them, there was _nothing_! So, as of yet, they cannot
be classified as working, but they are complete.
My oldest running 8 at the moment is an -8/L. It's in the same rack as the
-8/i which I did get working in High School, but hasn't been cabled up and
powered on in a few years. I forget exactly how the green wires go on the
power card and I don't want to fry _it_, either. I do wish I had a second
set of high-speed punch and reader interface cards. I have to move them
from box to box when I'm working with one vs. the
other. Somewhere in a box
of modules, I have the delay line needed to add the
second core stack to
the -8/i. That is another goal - upgrade the mem on the -8/i and try to
get some sort of mass storage device on it and install some kind of OS on it.
Got peripherals (RK05, RX01, DF32/DS32, TU56, PR04). Lacking in pre-omnibus
interfaces. Thought about trying to wire in an RX8E once. I moved on to
other things before I even grabbed the wire-wrap tool. Always thought a single
ONMIBUS slot on the back of a PDP-8/L would be kinda cool.
-ethan
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9:57 a.m.
New subject: RK11-C and Straight-8 restoration
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26 Mar
26 Mar
4:17 a.m.
New subject: RK11-C and Straight-8 restoration
--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I don't think I have that drive intact anymore. I was working for a small
company doing DEC repairs in 1988 and I think I stripped mine down for parts
about the same time I reduced two pallets of them down to four working drives
for my boss. What I'll probably have to do is convert a working RK05J into
a working RK05F by replacing the heads, changing the jumpers, removing the
cartridge loading mechanism and changing out the faceplace (I think I still
have it somewhere). Before anyone bemoans the loss, remember, this was more
than ten years ago when such things were being thrown away. I have rescued
several RK05 drives over the years and only the one was stripped. I don't
know if the heads would be useful, even if I kept them; one was pretty goobered
up when it crashed. I know I still have the platter - there is no oxide over
a three-inch stripe on one side. I planed it all off when I screwed up. It
was the first hard disk I ever interacted with and it did _not_ survive the
experience.
Since I do have a single RK05F cart (16 sector!), I would eventually like to
get a working F drive, but it's ultra-low priority.
-ethan
=====
Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to
vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com
The original webpage address is still going away. The
permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/
See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
> It's not so much parts as time and docs. I
may have the RK11-C prints...
An H720 PSU IIRC. I can't remember if it needs
voltages other than +5V,
though. It may need -15V, but probably not much else.
I'm sure I have a few of those sitting around.
...I got it in
1984... I proceeded, in my youthful ignorance, to crash the
RK05F...
It's probably possible to repair that if/when you have time. If you were
in the UK, I'd offer to give you a hand doing it (I may even have a spare
set of -F heads, but I don't want to send them by post...)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
brian.roth＠firstniagarabank.com -
ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com