Vax Station 3100 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

19 Oct 2000

Yesterday, in response to Neil Cherry's post on his DEC machine I wrote:

...
  Just behind the memory is the video frame buffer.  It
is either
 a VFB02 mono, or a VFB02 color (p/n 54-19469-01). 
Correction: the mono video frame buffer is a VFB01

Later Neil Cherry &lt;ncherry(a)home.net&gt; wrote:

...
  According to message I found during a web search, I
may have purchased a
 lemon. It states that the machine won't boot without a keyboard and mouse.
 Well I don't have any. I'll have to hunt them down and then load *BSD. 
To which Mike Ford &lt;mikeford(a)socal.rr.com&gt; wrote:

...
  No idea on mice, but I still have some LK201 and LK401
DEC keyboards. 
Hey Neil, given your 'lemon', some water & sugar: Lemonade!

I have also got some spare LK201's.  Also buried deep somewhere is
a couple unused hockey puck mice still in the original box, and they
lastest haul included a bag of hockey pucks as well.

Also adding his two bits was "Sean Caron" &lt;sean(a)techcare.com&gt; and he
wrote:

...
  You may have read about the insidious mouse port
dependency on these
 machines :) 
...
  These systems must have either a mouse or a
"mouse port terminator"
 installed on them to boot NetBSD (and others, perhaps) from the graphics  console.
I think
...
  more information on them can be found on the
NetBSD/pmax Web site, or you  could
...
  also probably look it up by typing something like
"DECstation 3100 mouse
 terminator" into your favorite search engine. 
Here's the info:

: How can I run a DECstation without the display?
: (From the Ultrix FAQ found at ftp.digital.com)

: To turn a DECstation 2100/3100 into a DECsystem 2100/3100 you need to:

: 1.  Remove the Graphics board, keyboard and mouse.
: 2.  Put a mouse loopback connector in the hole for the mouse plug.
:     The loopback connector part number is: 12-25628-01

: To make your own:

: Short Transmit data to Receive Data, pins 2->4 as shown in the diagram.
: (view looking at the plug).

:       5 6 7
:       o o o
:    4 o === o 1
:        o o 
:        3 2

...
  I'm not sure if its a problem if you boot the
system off a serial console
 (which, incidentially, you can do; just hook up a terminal to the port with
 the printer icon next to it and flip the little DIP switch S3 on the back
 of the system - then you don't even need a mouse, keyboard, or monitor). 
Sean, here I will have to say: Huh?  There is no DIP switch on the back of
a DECstation 3100's.  Is this something on the back of a VAXstation 3100?
If so, I thought we decided this was a DECstation 3100.

...
  Unfortunately, unless you have a MMJ terminal (VT3/400
series) you'll need
 to either buy or build a converter to break out MMJ to something more
 useful. The only problem is that (out here, at least), MMJ plugs are just
 about impossible to find and the converters (MMJ->DB25) cost $25 from DEC.
 Ouch! 
Ouch is right, never knew DEC wanted that much.  Maybe I need to take
my shoe box full of 'em to my safe deposit box. ;-))

And then Neil Cherry wrote:

...
  2 ways around that problem, minor surgery (exacto
blade) or major surgery
 (remove MMJ and solder in appropriate 6 pin RJ outlet). I think I'll
 start with the exacto first. Actually there is a 3rd method I'll try first
 and that is the exacto the RJ11 plug so it no longer has the tab on it. 
Neil, if you want to use a PC as a terminal and need one, I have a couple
spare MMJ cables.  Or in case you want to 'roll your own' I will post a
'fact file' on MMJ.  I have posted it here in the past, but probably not
a bad idea to post again.

Mike