Fwd: Finally got a "straight" DF32 yesterday - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

4 Nov 1999

--- John B &lt;dylanb(a)sympatico.ca&gt; wrote:
...
  Looks like the PDP 8/S will be running a lot more than
FOCAL in the near
 future. 
Cool.

...
  Yesterday in our snow storm I picked up:

 DF32 with docs and "Disk Monitor" paper tapes. This is the first series
 DF32s with the "R" series modules and no "8I switch".  
What's the -8/I switch?  I have several DF-32's.  All well used and not
necessarily working (I have played with them but never really tried to use
them for storage - the rotation sensor has been verified on at least one
drive, but that's about it).  One set came with the straight -8s, another
set came with the -8/I.  

If you get this working, I'd love to get a copy of the tapes - I have an -8/I
that may someday have 8K on it (if I sacrifice an -8/L by stealing its core;
I have N machines that use them and (including the second field on the -8/I),
N-2 core stacks)  I'm thinking of wiring up some CMOS static RAM on the pins
of an -8/L for its 4K and migrating the core to the -8/I).  I could use the
slot between the planes on the core stack for workspace  It's unpopulated.

...
  This unit was wrapped in plastic
 and was used as a spare - it looks like it was used very little. I also got
 a new spare disk for it if I need it. 
You know that the heads crash everytime you power it off, yes?  They are the
kind of disks you power up and leave on forever.  In the real world, when the
osmium coating wore too thin to record data, DEC FS flipped the disk once
and reformatted.

...
  But... the DF32 needs 13 I/O cables to
 connect to the 8/s. Anyone still selling these kinds of things? 
I do not know *who* would have that sort of thing.  I have one set per master
drive.  No spares.  Sorry.

...
  H901 Flip Chip Patch Panels - These are really sweet.
You basically plug the
 flip chips in the back and use banana plugs in the front. Also, (I didn't
 know this at the time) hundreds of those "plastic" cards for the front of
 the H901 to make it easy to wire circuits. 
Is this the original DEC logic experimenter's board?  There were two produced:
one for DTL, one for TTL.  I got a classroom book for the TTL version when I
was in grade school.  I did many of the exercises on paper since I didn't have
the hardware to try stuff out on.

...
  I am building a quick testing station with the H901s
with the 8/s so I can
 quickly fix these Flip Chips so I can provide a list on my website for
 anyone who needs one. 
I'd love to see pictures.

...
  I will update the webpage over the next few weeks to
catalog the parts and
 software I have to help others with their old transistor computers. 
Perhaps in a couple of months, I'll dig down through the pile far enough to
begin to recondition the cleaner of my Straight-8s.  The dirty one was 
apparently  from a newspaper and coated in ink.  It has a PA-60 which is, I
think, some kind of typesetter's interface.

...
  Updates to members here (trying to save bandwidth)

 Chuck: I am going to storage this weekend. I will look for the RK8E cables
 for you. I don't need them as I don't like any "IC" PDP-8.. well, maybe
an
 8I. 
You have maybe an extra RK8E that you aren't going to use?  All I have for
hard disk on ONMIBUS is RL01/RL8A sets.  I've never had any RK stuff for
the -8.  I do have this 16-sector RK05F pack (and no 16-sector RK05J packs,
only 12 sectors) that I'd love to read, but we've been over this on the
list before.  At this point, I'd probably have to hack one of my RK05J drives
and replace the heads, realign it to match the pack, back it up, etc., etc.
I've always wondered what's on it.  I've had it since 1984 and never owned
the
gear to read it.

-ethan

=====
Infinet has been sold.  The domain is going away in February.
Please send all replies to 

  erd(a)iname.com
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com