28 Feb
2003
28 Feb
'03
3:14 a.m.
Looks like there's a DEC MINC-11 in good condition to be
had for free in the North of England. Please, somebody go
save this thing from the skip! Maybe Adrian "Two Sheds"
Vickers can use it for a climate control system for his
garage... ;^)
Here's the post:
========
From: eclunan1(a)aol.comnotanysp (Eclunan1)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp11
Date: 28 Feb 2003 10:07:37 GMT
Organization: AOL, http://www.aol.co.uk
Subject: MINC 11 free in north west England
Message-ID: <20030228050737.11472.00000175(a)mb-fx.aol.com>
For anyone interested, I have a Digital
Minc-11, type RX02M-MD, serial number WS1840, with clock
and d/a plug-in modules, and Digital RX02 twin 10" floppy
disk drive unit. Also two keyboard/printer units, Digital
Decwriter II and III. Also one unopened and a part box of
8" floppies, and a box of manuals. In south Cumbria, England. Free
to take away. You will need a decent sized estate car or a
trailer. Otherwise going to skip.
Cheers
Eddie
========
Ade: I'm jealous is all. I get to go drive on the track every
now and again with a car club, but no racing. Oh, and that you
can get to this MINC and I can't of course... ;^)
Good luck all,
--Steve.
28 Feb
28 Feb
6:35 a.m.
ARE YOU NUTZ??!?!?!?!? GO GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!
David
On Friday, Feb 28, 2003, at 12:11 America/New_York, Steve Jones wrote:
Looks like there's a DEC MINC-11 in good condition
to be
had for free in the North of England. Please, somebody go
save this thing from the skip! Maybe Adrian "Two Sheds"
Vickers can use it for a climate control system for his
garage... ;^)
Here's the post:
========
From: eclunan1(a)aol.comnotanysp (Eclunan1)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp11
Date: 28 Feb 2003 10:07:37 GMT
Organization: AOL, http://www.aol.co.uk
Subject: MINC 11 free in north west England
Message-ID: <20030228050737.11472.00000175(a)mb-fx.aol.com>
For anyone interested, I have a Digital
Minc-11, type RX02M-MD, serial number WS1840, with clock
and d/a plug-in modules, and Digital RX02 twin 10" floppy
disk drive unit. Also two keyboard/printer units, Digital
Decwriter II and III. Also one unopened and a part box of
8" floppies, and a box of manuals. In south Cumbria, England. Free
to take away. You will need a decent sized estate car or a
trailer. Otherwise going to skip.
Cheers
Eddie
========
Ade: I'm jealous is all. I get to go drive on the track every
now and again with a car club, but no racing. Oh, and that you
can get to this MINC and I can't of course... ;^)
Good luck all,
--Steve.
1 Mar
1 Mar
12:49 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of David HM Spector
Sent: 28 February 2003 20:30
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England
> Looks like there's a DEC MINC-11 in good condition to be
> had for free in the North of England. Please, somebody go
> save this thing from the skip! Maybe Adrian "Two Sheds"
> Vickers can use it for a climate control system for his
> garage... ;^)
>
I'm on it - I'm maybe 2 hours away from there so I can pick up, assuming a)
I can get it in the garage and b) my girlfriend doesn't kill me :)
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
7:02 p.m.
At 00:48 01/03/2003, Witchy wrote:
I'm on it - I'm maybe 2 hours away from there
so I can pick up, assuming a)
I can get it in the garage and b) my girlfriend doesn't kill me :)
Top chap - I'd pretty well decided it was too far away for me to
realistically collect, seeing as how I don't have an estate car or similar.
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
3 Mar
3 Mar
2:40 p.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Adrian Vickers
Sent: 02 March 2003 08:51
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England
It's all in the garage, complete with a DECWriter II and DECWriter III. I
have to preen at this point and say that was the best bit of car packing
I've ever done - *nothing* moved on the way home, and those Lake District
roads leave a lot to be desired. Had to take the cover off one of the
DECwriters to get it in the back though; thanks to DEC for welding the
bloody legs on the stands of those things, and thanks to VW for giving the
Passat estate a big load area :)
Anyway; the haul included MINC with 2 modules and the following boards:
M8012 boot board
M8043 DLV11 4 channel MUX for console etc.
M7954 IBV11 IEC/IEEE interface
M8029 RXV21 RX02 controller
M8044 MSV11 RAM board
M7270 (I think) 11/23 CPU
RX02 twin set
Manuals including 'Unpacking MINC' and 'Using MINC' plus programming
guides
etc
3 years worth of MINC newsletter from V1 #1
VT100 tech ref.
RX02 user guide
Original system and demo disks plus PASCAL and FORTRAN disks
Full schematics.
All in all, that's a pretty good haul! (I'm a poet, etc :)
The only thing that's been powered up recently was one of the DECWriters,
and the magic smoke escaped from the print head apparently, but considering
all of this has been stored in an outbuilding that used to be a milking shed
20 years ago I think it's all lasted quite well.
First thing to do will be a full dismantle and clean I think......
Pix soon.
cheers
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
I'm on it - I'm maybe 2 hours away from
there so I can pick up,
assuming a)
I can get it in the garage and b) my girlfriend
doesn't kill me :)
Top chap - I'd pretty well decided it was too far away for me to
realistically collect, seeing as how I don't have an estate car
or similar. 
4 Mar
4 Mar
9:56 a.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
Anyway; the haul included MINC with 2 modules and the
following boards:
Only 2 modules (I assume the DAC and Clock that were mentioned) :-(.
Pity. You really need at least the ADC to do anything useful with it.
M8012 boot board
M8043 DLV11 4 channel MUX for console etc.
M7954 IBV11 IEC/IEEE interface
M8029 RXV21 RX02 controller
M8044 MSV11 RAM board
M7270 (I think) 11/23 CPU
Isn;t that an 11/03?
Odd there's no LPV11. That was standard on the MINC IIRC. Apart from
that, it sounds like a standard MINC configuration (the IBV11 is a GPIB
interface, BTW...)
-tony
5 Mar
5 Mar
1:52 p.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Tony Duell
Sent: 04 March 2003 23:17
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
I'm sure one will turn up sometime in the future; knowing my luck someone
will give me another fully populated MINC next week :) And then I'll get
battered off the missus.
The DAC has one cable coming off it that terminates in a female D25, but the
previous owner didn't know what it was used for since he was given it by
someone else!
Anyway; the haul included MINC with 2 modules and
the following boards:
Only 2 modules (I assume the DAC and Clock that were mentioned) :-(.
Pity. You really need at least the ADC to do anything useful with it. M8029 RXV21
RX02 controller
M8044 MSV11 RAM board
M7270 (I think) 11/23 CPU
Isn;t that an 11/03? Odd there's no LPV11. That was standard on the
MINC IIRC. Apart from
that, it sounds like a standard MINC configuration (the IBV11 is a GPIB
interface, BTW...)
If one or both of the DECwriters that came with the bundle were used on the
MINC they'll have been serial anyway, so no need for an LPV11....
cheers
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
6 Mar
6 Mar
5:50 a.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
Only 2 modules
(I assume the DAC and Clock that were mentioned) :-(.
Pity. You really need at least the ADC to do anything useful with it.
I'm sure one will turn up sometime in the future; knowing my luck someone
will give me another fully populated MINC next week :) And then I'll get
battered off the missus. The DAC has one cable coming off it that terminates in
a female D25, but the
previous owner didn't know what it was used for since he was given it by
someone else!
Is this connected to the top edge connector (which should have a
connector block with screw terminals plugged onto it), or is it wired to
component leads on the PCB or what?
If one or both of the DECwriters that came with the
bundle were used on the
MINC they'll have been serial anyway, so no need for an LPV11....
Sure, but for some odd reason MINCs seem to have them. All mine do, and
AFAIK none were ever used with a parallel printer.
-tony
7 Mar
7 Mar
8:36 a.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
Tony:
to a factory sale auction where there was a floppy
drive MINC. I noticed
it contained the (IMHO somewhat rare) pre-amp and thermocouple modules,
neither of which I had. Amazingly I got it for the opening bid of \pounds
2.00
Hehe, just like London Buses eh? :)
Is this connected to the top edge connector (which
should have a
connector block with screw terminals plugged onto it), or is it wired to
component leads on the PCB or what?
It's on the top edge connector and also has some sort of resistor stuck in a
big plastic box wired to one of the lines.
Sure, but for some odd reason MINCs seem to have them.
All mine do, and
AFAIK none were ever used with a parallel printer.
Weird, unless the aim was to use the serial lines for other connections?
The MINC Newsletters are great; full of 1970s boffinry and blokes with
beards prodding things while MINC does the data collection and plots it
nicely on the VT105 :) I just need the extra module for my VT100 and I'm
sorted!
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
9:06 a.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
Tony:
Yeah, ypu wait for ages then 3 come along at once :-)
to a factory sale auction where there was a
floppy drive MINC. I noticed
it contained the (IMHO somewhat rare) pre-amp and thermocouple modules,
neither of which I had. Amazingly I got it for the opening bid of \pounds
2.00
Hehe, just like London Buses eh? :) Is this connected to the top edge connector
(which should have a
connector block with screw terminals plugged onto it), or is it wired to
component leads on the PCB or what?
It's on the top edge connector and also has some sort of resistor stuck in a
big plastic box wired to one of the lines.
9 Mar
9 Mar
3:35 p.m.
New subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Tony Duell
Sent: 07 March 2003 22:53
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England - rescued!
As you've probably discovered by now, the top connectors on the MINC
modules are for user I/O. The DAC outputs (and other I/O lines) are
there, for example. So presumably this was a connector for the user's
experiment.
Oh aye, definitely. It just would've been nice to know what it was plugged
into in the first place, but there's no point asking the bloke I got it from
'cos he just received it from a friend and stuck it in his workshop where it
sat ever since.
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
28 Feb
28 Feb
6:48 a.m.
Hi,
"Steve Jones" <classiccmp(a)crash.com> said:
Looks like there's a DEC MINC-11 in good condition
to be
had for free in the North of England. Please, somebody go
save this thing from the skip! Maybe Adrian "Two Sheds"
Vickers can use it for a climate control system for his
garage... ;^)
I saw that as well. Sadly, although I'm only about 125 miles
oe so away, I've no transport.
(I live a couple of miles from Adrian's shed...)
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb(a)dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!
7:02 a.m.
At 17:11 28/02/2003, you wrote:
Looks like there's a DEC MINC-11 in good condition
to be
had for free in the North of England.
Hmmm.
Please, somebody go
save this thing from the skip! Maybe Adrian "Two Sheds"
Vickers can use it for a climate control system for his
garage... ;^)
I'm getting a reputation, aren't I? :)
Seriously - if someone can lend me a suitable trailer, I'd be happy to
contact the chap & see if he'll hang onto it for a week or two until I can
get up there (although S. Cumbria is a reasonable trek away).
Unfortunately, although I have two trailers (ahem), one is a little piddly
thing (and open to the elements), and the other is a FO big car trailer
suffering two problems - 1) it's open to the elements, 2) it's got a car
with a broken wheel on it...
I'd also be happy to keep it indefinitely pending someone else doing
something with it - I'd like to stick to one - or, perhaps, two :) -
projects at a time...
(snip post)
Ade: I'm jealous is all. I get to go drive on the
track every
now and again with a car club, but no racing. Oh, and that you
can get to this MINC and I can't of course... ;^)
:) No worries! It'll take a bit of working on to get "two-sheds" status,
but one is plenty for now... Although you wouldn't have known it, there's
actually an old Rover 820 parked behind the HP's (under the black tarp);
it's basically scrap (good body, broken engine), and I'm going to stick it
in autotrader soon to see if anyone wants it; failing that, it's off to the
scrappy with it, becuase frankly it's taking up space which would be better
utilised for old computers...
Meanwhile, back to the HPs: With the help of Bob Shannon, it looks like I
might be able to have a serious crack at getting the F-series machines
running. The only bit that's likely to cause a problem is I may not have a
suitable console terminal, but I'm sure I can butcher my laptop's serial
connection into behaving in the appropriate manner. Fingers crossed!
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
3 Mar
3 Mar
4:44 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Adrian Vickers
Sent: 28 February 2003 20:53
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England
Seriously - if someone can lend me a suitable trailer, I'd be happy to
contact the chap & see if he'll hang onto it for a week or two
until I can
get up there (although S. Cumbria is a reasonable trek away).
Unfortunately, although I have two trailers (ahem), one is a
S'OK - I'm off there tomorrow morning to pick it up and THEN worry about how
I'm going to get it in the garage :) I just hope I can get both DECwriters
(II and III) in too 'cos I'd hate to leave one of them behind. Hopefully
they can be dismantled; it's been a while since I last worked on one....
little piddly
thing (and open to the elements), and the other is a FO big car trailer
suffering two problems - 1) it's open to the elements, 2) it's got a car
with a broken wheel on it...
I've been thinking about having a towbar fitted to my car since we can get a
trailer in the garage but not a full-size car! The garage was built in 1910
and seems to be wide enough for an Austin 7 :)
I'd also be happy to keep it indefinitely pending
someone else doing
something with it - I'd like to stick to one - or, perhaps, two :) -
projects at a time...
Same here.
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
5:32 a.m.
At 11:52 02/03/2003, Witchy wrote:
S'OK - I'm off there tomorrow morning to pick
it up
Nice one.
and THEN worry about how
I'm going to get it in the garage :)
The /only/ way :)
'course, space is not my problem, just the transport. However, the old
Senator's starting to make more rattly noises than I'm totally comfortable
with, so I'll be changing it sometime this year. For a nice BFO pickup I
think. That way, with a couple of tarps & a pallet, I should be able to
pick up (har har) pretty much any old iron. So long as it can be lifted, of
course...
The garage was built in 1910
and seems to be wide enough for an Austin 7 :)
Snap! My garage will just fit the width of a Ford Granada (1" spare either
side of the wing mirrors), but not the length... The Rover 820 completely
defeated it, as would the Senator. Hey ho. Just have to fill it with old
computers instead, I think :)
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
5:56 a.m.
think. That way, with a couple of tarps & a
pallet, I should
be able to
pick up (har har) pretty much any old iron. So long as it can
be lifted, of
course...
The man who turned up at the office to collect the kit
that the reseller had bought, had a van (a Sprinter or some
such) with an "after-market" built in tail-lift. By that
I mean it was not visible outside the van (like say a
Luton's would be) and it looked like an add-on rather than a
standard fitting. Probably cost a bit too though (and my
guess is something like a DECarray 900 would have tipped
a titchy van like that over anyway :-) )
Antonio
--
---------------
Antonio Carlini arcarlini(a)iee.org
7:09 a.m.
On 3/3/03 7:52 pm, "Antonio Carlini" <arcarlini(a)iee.org> scribed thus:
(and my
guess is something like a DECarray 900 would have tipped
a titchy van like that over anyway :-) )
The HP1000 systems that Ade and I shifted almost tipped over the Renault
derived Luton with tail lift that we hired. I don't think Ade quite realised
how much steering I wasn't doing on the roundabouts ;)
Tim.
7:42 a.m.
At 21:05 03/03/2003, you wrote:
On 3/3/03 7:52 pm, "Antonio Carlini"
<arcarlini(a)iee.org> scribed thus:
Oh, I realised all right...
It was the fear that prevented me from saying anything :)
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
(and my
guess is something like a DECarray 900 would have tipped
a titchy van like that over anyway :-) )
The HP1000 systems that Ade and I shifted almost tipped over the Renault
derived Luton with tail lift that we hired. I don't think Ade quite realised
how much steering I wasn't doing on the roundabouts ;) 
4 Mar
4 Mar
8:05 a.m.
Antonio Carlini wrote:
The man who turned up at the office to collect the
kit
that the reseller had bought, had a van (a Sprinter or some
such) with an "after-market" built in tail-lift.
Ah, tail-lifts! How would we move the Big Iron without 'em?
--
John Honniball
coredump(a)gifford.co.uk
8:35 a.m.
At 22:11 04/03/2003, Fred N. van Kempen wrote:
On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, John Honniball wrote:
> Ah, tail-lifts! How would we move the Big Iron without 'em?
Forklifts.
Or cranes...
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
8:48 a.m.
--- "Fred N. van Kempen" <waltje(a)pdp11.nl> wrote:
On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, John Honniball wrote:
Gotta be careful with those. When I was at a local reseller picking
up a Pyramid for Dan Cohoe, I watched the fork driver crimp the
back door of a rented van while attempting to load a CDC 9766 disk
drive. It really wasn't the fork driver's fault. The door was
above his head, nobody was watching up there, and everyone kept
telling him to inch forward. The forklift was a foot taller than the
car and the gate was longer than the tines.
Glad _I_ didn't have to explain that at the rental counter.
-ethan
Ah, tail-lifts! How would we move the Big Iron
without 'em?
Forklifts. 
8:55 a.m.
On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Gotta be careful with those.
Well, given my dad
ran a flowerbulb growing and exporting company
for 20 years, I got my (more than fair!) share of forklift-duties
when I was younger. Ya know.. driving em around, shuffling pallets
loaded with 48 crates of flowerbulbs around... :)
(mental note: YES, I dropped one or two pallets over the years..
which turned out real messy every time.. bulbs rolling everywhere..)
--f
2:13 p.m.
On Tuesday 04 March 2003 17:44, Ethan Dicks wrote:
--- "Fred N. van Kempen"
<waltje(a)pdp11.nl> wrote:
Dan scored another Pryamid. The one we pulled the crane used the magnet and
lifted it over the fluke that and Hitachi disk arrays to drop it beside the
van. The only damage we noticed was one bent hinge, on the computer.
On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, John Honniball wrote:
Gotta be careful with those. When I was at a local reseller picking
up a Pyramid for Dan Cohoe, I watched the fork driver crimp the
back door of a rented van while attempting to load a CDC 9766 disk Ah, tail-lifts! How would we move the Big Iron
without 'em?
Forklifts. 
1 Mar
1 Mar
12:49 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Steve Jones
Sent: 28 February 2003 17:12
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Free DEC MINC-11 in NW England
Looks like there's a DEC MINC-11 in good condition to be
had for free in the North of England. Please, somebody go
save this thing from the skip! Maybe Adrian "Two Sheds"
Vickers can use it for a climate control system for his
garage... ;^)
There's more than 1 Adrian here too, and since I'm 'relaxing' between jobs
I
can go and pick up....
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
7725
days inactive
7734
days old
25 comments
13 participants
participants (13)
-
arcarlini＠iee.org -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
avickers＠solutionengineers.com -
classiccmp＠crash.com -
coredump＠gifford.co.uk -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
kenziem＠sympatico.ca -
spector＠zeitgeist.com -
stanb＠dial.pipex.com -
tim.myers＠sunplan.com -
vance＠neurotica.com -
waltje＠pdp11.nl -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk