Hi Hayden, On Mon, 1 Aug 2016 19:29:05 -0600 Hayden Kroepfl <perlpowers at gmail.com> wrote: --snip-- Those of us who have brought up HP2100s that have been stored (even in military packaging) know the power supplies can be a "bear". The PS is a "fold out" deal - and never used to be repaired in the field by FEs. They were swapped with new units - and the failing supply sent back to HP for refurbishing. The process was detailed to me by a person who sold 2100's as an OEM for many years. That being said, they are a early design switching supply - and should have a load when powering them on. I would definitely NOT use a variac on them. It's best to check the caps (and reform if necessary) and then power it up with a load. You may have to "gently" (as in slowly) turn the PS on and off a number of times to work out the years of "dormancy" (reforming the capacitors that you can't get to ;) The 2100 has a weird I/O addressing scheme - so check the manual carefully. Moving a card from one location to another in the mainframe changes its address! That's very different from DEC (and many others) who had switches or jumpers on boards to change addresses. interrupts, etc. Look on bitsavers: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/hp/21xx/ and start reading manuals (particularly the Maintenance and Drawings). There a wealth of information to be found there - and it's what I used to get my 2100S running. --snip-- HP2100 restoration is very doable. And the 2100 has one of the best front panels going :) Like how can you not like buttons that light up when you push them!? Most of my problems with my 2100S were related to the power supply - and a few related to memory. Wishing you the best!!! Cheers, Lyle -- 73 AF6WS Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

Lyle, I didn't know you had such a collection of 2100's and 21MX and E's and F's! I need to come and visit! Marc

> On Aug 1, 2016, at 7:12 PM, Lyle Bickley <lbickley at bickleywest.com> > wrote: > > Hi Hayden, > > On Mon, 1 Aug 2016 19:29:05 -0600 > Hayden Kroepfl <perlpowers at gmail.com> wrote: > > --snip-- > >> With regards to the power supply, I'm thinking my best bet would be >> to do a power on with no cards in the system. Though I'm not sure >> if all the power rails would even come up without a load on it, >> since it sounds like it may do some power sequencing from what >> I've read. I was wondering if anyone has some experience with >> testing a similar power supply that hasn't been run in at least 10 >> years? > > Those of us who have brought up HP2100s that have been stored (even > in military packaging) know the power supplies can be a "bear". The > PS is a "fold out" deal - and never used to be repaired in the > field by FEs. They were swapped with new units - and the failing > supply sent back to HP for refurbishing. The process was detailed > to me by a person who sold 2100's as an OEM for many years. > > That being said, they are a early design switching supply - and > should have a load when powering them on. > >> I'm not sure if using a variac to slowly warm up the supply and the >> caps would be wise on one of these power supplies. I'm not sure how >> the switching supplies would handle the low voltage at the start. > > I would definitely NOT use a variac on them. It's best to check the > caps (and reform if necessary) and then power it up with a load. > You may have to "gently" (as in slowly) turn the PS on and off a > number of times to work out the years of "dormancy" (reforming the > capacitors that you can't get to ;) > >> The only I/O card that was installed in both machines, besides a >> terminator board in only one of them, is a serial interface made by >> some company with the logo CMC. It uses a COM2502 UART which I was >> surprised to find a datasheet for, however I haven't found any >> information on the card itself. I have a photo of the card in the >> album linked below if anyone has any information on it. > > The 2100 has a weird I/O addressing scheme - so check the manual > carefully. Moving a card from one location to another in the > mainframe changes its address! That's very different from DEC (and > many others) who had switches or jumpers on boards to change > addresses. interrupts, etc. > >> I know this email is getting a bit long, but with regards to the >> memory both machines have a ID(16K) driver board, and two core >> modules. However one machine has both core modules marked >> 02100-60052 on the bridge, and the other has one marked >> 02100-60052 and the other 02100-60054. Is there any difference >> between these modules? I'd assume by the 16K driver in both, that >> all of the core modules are 8KW modules. Would that just be a >> later revision or is one a different size? > > Look on bitsavers: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/hp/21xx/ > and start reading manuals (particularly the Maintenance and > Drawings). There a wealth of information to be found there - and > it's what I used to get my 2100S running. > > --snip-- > >> I'd very much appreciate any help or suggestions that peopleh ave. >> I really want to get at least one of these machines back into full >> working order to have some fun programming with. > > HP2100 restoration is very doable. > > And the 2100 has one of the best front panels going :) > Like how can you not like buttons that light up when you push them!? > > Most of my problems with my 2100S were related to the power supply - > and a few related to memory. > > Wishing you the best!!! > > Cheers, > Lyle > -- > 73 AF6WS > Bickley Consulting West Inc. > http://bickleywest.com > > "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

On Mon, 1 Aug 2016 22:11:17 -0700 Bob Rosenbloom <bobalan at sbcglobal.net> wrote: --snip-- I had exactly the same problem with the capacitors on a spare Inhibit Driver Load Card. Most would not reform so I just replaced them with modern caps. The board (and memory) worked perfectly after that. Lyle

21MX) I/O manual. I'll see system of them. nothing they were easier to boards to a 16K About power supply failures mine did have one, when under power after a few minutes there was a loud bang and the system resets. Which would be repeated every few minutes, some investigating and measurement later I discovered one of the high voltage elco's shorted every few minutes. Which started the power on cycle and resets the cpu. After replacing those all voltages were stable and in range and the banging was over ;) After some testing I concluded there were some faults in the cpu, being the lucky owner of an extender board I was able to fix all the errors. The HP 2100 service manual and hardware course and engineering reference are a big help fixing the 2100 and as J says a set of known good cards can be of help too. But knowledge of the working of the micro instructions is also a big help, IRC the micro instructions are described in both the engineering reference and the service manual both can be found on bitsavers. The only weak point of the 2100 is the use of uCTL a Fiarchild DTL derivate used for IO drivers in the 2100 series. Brent Hilpert has a lot of info on his site about those gates. -Rik

On Aug 2, 2016, at 4:06 PM, Kirk Davis <kirkbdavis at me.com> wrote: I?m a noob using RX02?s but thought I?d run this past people that may have debugged them in the past and see if they agree with what I?m finding: I?m trying to get a RX02 + RX211 + 11/44 going. The RX02 appears to power up OK (fan and motor spinning). I verified I have the DY boot rom in the 44. Attempt booting from the console: S 17777707 173436 Which halts in the DY boot rom. I look at the base RX211 register: 17777170 104040 From the manual this like the controller is present but the high order bit is set indicating an error Looking at the status register; 17777172 000010 Bit 3 == RX AC LO - This bit is set by the interface to indicate a power failure in the RX02 sub- system. So start looking at the RX02 power supply?

On Aug 2, 2016, at 3:24 PM, Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com> wrote: Hi KIrk, The H771 is a rock solid power supply. I never saw one go bad while in field service, but they are getting old. Checking the output voltage and ripple is not a bad idea. forgive me for asking, but where are you located? The RX02 had 4 different power hanesses for i20, 220, 50 hz and 60 hz. Also different belts amd pulleys. if any of this is wrong you cn see weird problems. A lot of RX02s and replacement drives were soul through brokers who never asked or were never told where the unit was going. if you aren'y useing 120/60 that would be my first thought. Is the problem the same when booting off either drive? Also check the switches and the resistors on the head cables. Good luck, Paul

Jerry Weiss wrote: If you haven?t already, check the cable seating, orientation and for bent pins. On the RX211 board J1 - TT is the location of the AC LO - Active Low signal. On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 4:06 PM, Kirk Davis <kirkbdavis at me.com> wrote: > I?m a noob using RX02?s but thought I?d run this past people that may have > debugged them in the past and see if they agree with what I?m finding: > > I?m trying to get a RX02 + RX211 + 11/44 going. The RX02 appears to power > up OK (fan and motor spinning). I verified I have the DY boot rom in the > 44. Attempt booting from the console: > >>>> b dy > > S > 17777707 173436 > > Which halts in the DY boot rom. I look at the base RX211 register: > >>>> e 17777170 > 17777170 104040 > > From the manual this like the controller is present but the high order bit > is set indicating an error > > Looking at the status register; > >>>> e 17777172 > 17777172 000010 > > Bit 3 == RX AC LO - This bit is set by the interface to indicate a power > failure in the RX02 sub- system. > > So start looking at the RX02 power supply? > > >