22 Jan
2016
22 Jan
'16
5 p.m.
Hi there, long time viewer, first time poster. First an introduction:
My name is Joshua Stetson and I'm a software engineer by trade. My earliest
memories have always involved computers starting with a DOS based Zenith
8088 where I played some of my first games.
My first foray into "classic" computing was on a Commodore 64 which my
Uncle gave me while I was still in Jr. High. I'd already been introduced to
programming at an early age, so this machine was an absolute treat to me at
the time as it was my first step into assembly language. As time
progressed, my interests turned older and I began a collection of S-100
gear including an IMSAI 8080 and a SOL-20.
Over the past couple of years, I've managed to work back even further,
piecing together a PDP-8/e system from various parts collected over the
past 4 years and now I have a fully working 8/e including 32kw of core and
an RK05E card set. I've been running the system using Kyle Owen's
os8diskserver and David Gesswein's sendtape utilities which both work
absolutely wonderfully. It was amazing to be able to run Adventure on a
native system!
I'd like to send a shout out to Kyle for the os8diskserver, that is some
pretty awesome work there. David for his software and archive of DEC
documentation which was indispensable for helping me debug a few boards and
get everything running and tested. I also want to thank Vincent Slyngstad
for his help and support on some questions.
Now to my ask:
Recently I've found a pair of RK05J drives and a few disk packs. One of my
drives seems to be in fully working order, the other the blower is not
working, so I'm working on fixing that right now.
I'm currently missing cabling for connect these drives to the RK05E board
set. If anyone happens to have an extra cable set they'd be willing to part
with so I can bring these beasts back to life, I'd appreciate it!
Ideally I would like to find the following:
7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on the
other end
The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
The terminator card M930
At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of the
drives, but I'd appreciate any help from those who have more experience.
Also, I don't have a rack for this equipment yet, so I'm running it all
tabletop, but I'm in the market for a rack + rails (I only have the rails
for the equipment, but not the ones that mount to the rack itself. Any
leads on more 16-sector packs would also be appreciated! Also, still hoping
to get the extended arithmetic boards, RTC, and possibly a TSC8 Timesharing
option as I have 4 SLUs and would love to try out some timesharing.
On a side note, I'm looking to perhaps sell or trade my SOL-20 sometime
soon. It's 100% working as I restored it about 3 years ago. It works great,
but I'm looking to part with all of my S-100 equipment to focus more on DEC.
Thanks!
22 Jan
22 Jan
5:29 p.m.
Ideally I would like to find the following:
7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on the
other end
The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
The terminator card M930
At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of the
drives, but I'd appreciate any help from those who have more experience.
You must put the terminator in, even on a single drive system. I've had problems
where you get glitches on unterminated lines and the drive can end up writing
when it shouldn't. Don't ask...
The M930 and BC11 should be easy to find, they are actually the same as the bits
used on PDP11 Unibus connections.
-tony
5:49 p.m.
On Jan 22, 2016, at 2:29 PM, tony duell <ard at
p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
The M930 and BC11 should be easy to find, they are actually the same as the bits
used on PDP11 Unibus connections.
I have had no end of problems with the *many* BC11A cables that I have (ie they?re
bad cables). It?s the flex ribbon cable itself that?s been the issue.
To that end, I?ve made new ?paddle? board that take 2 60pin ribbon cables. I expect
to have the first round of boards back from the fab house in a couple of weeks. I?ll
let folks know how they turn out (ie do they actually work!).
They differ from the DEC ones in a few of ways:
They?re full hight. No more ?knuckle? busters.
The cables are ?standard? 60-pin ribbon (you need 2 ribbon cables)
The cables are not ?fixed? to the paddle board but use 3M connectors for attachment
There are two versions of the paddle boards
normal ?out the top?
90-degree right angle so you don?t have to ?fold? the cables for certain uses (like RK05
drives)
I did these primarily because I need more cables and my BC11A?s are very flakey. Also I
have uses where I
need the cable to terminate to something that is agreeable to attach to other than another
Unibus backplane.
The downside is that they were somewhat expensive (I ordered 10 of each just because that
made sense price
wise for a prototype run).
TTFN - Guy
24 Jan
24 Jan
12:24 p.m.
I have had no end of problems with the *many* BC11A cables that I have (ie
they?re
bad cables). It?s the flex ribbon cable itself that?s been the issue.
22 Jan
22 Jan
6:27 p.m.
Thank you, I won't ask on how you found this out, but I'll make sure to
have the terminator before running even a single drive! :)
On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 2:29 PM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Ideally I would like to find the following:
7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on
the
other end
The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
The terminator card M930
At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of
the
drives, but I'd appreciate any help from
those who have more experience.
You must put the terminator in, even on a single drive system. I've had
problems
where you get glitches on unterminated lines and the drive can end up
writing
when it shouldn't. Don't ask...
The M930 and BC11 should be easy to find, they are actually the same as
the bits
used on PDP11 Unibus connections.
-tony
6:09 p.m.
Be very careful of the filter assembly, make sure the foam seals are not
deteriorated to where they can add to what ends up on the platter.
On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Joshua Stetson <saburwulf at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi there, long time viewer, first time poster. First
an introduction:
My name is Joshua Stetson and I'm a software engineer by trade. My earliest
memories have always involved computers starting with a DOS based Zenith
8088 where I played some of my first games.
My first foray into "classic" computing was on a Commodore 64 which my
Uncle gave me while I was still in Jr. High. I'd already been introduced to
programming at an early age, so this machine was an absolute treat to me at
the time as it was my first step into assembly language. As time
progressed, my interests turned older and I began a collection of S-100
gear including an IMSAI 8080 and a SOL-20.
Over the past couple of years, I've managed to work back even further,
piecing together a PDP-8/e system from various parts collected over the
past 4 years and now I have a fully working 8/e including 32kw of core and
an RK05E card set. I've been running the system using Kyle Owen's
os8diskserver and David Gesswein's sendtape utilities which both work
absolutely wonderfully. It was amazing to be able to run Adventure on a
native system!
I'd like to send a shout out to Kyle for the os8diskserver, that is some
pretty awesome work there. David for his software and archive of DEC
documentation which was indispensable for helping me debug a few boards and
get everything running and tested. I also want to thank Vincent Slyngstad
for his help and support on some questions.
Now to my ask:
Recently I've found a pair of RK05J drives and a few disk packs. One of my
drives seems to be in fully working order, the other the blower is not
working, so I'm working on fixing that right now.
I'm currently missing cabling for connect these drives to the RK05E board
set. If anyone happens to have an extra cable set they'd be willing to part
with so I can bring these beasts back to life, I'd appreciate it!
Ideally I would like to find the following:
7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on the
other end
The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
The terminator card M930
At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of the
drives, but I'd appreciate any help from those who have more experience.
Also, I don't have a rack for this equipment yet, so I'm running it all
tabletop, but I'm in the market for a rack + rails (I only have the rails
for the equipment, but not the ones that mount to the rack itself. Any
leads on more 16-sector packs would also be appreciated! Also, still hoping
to get the extended arithmetic boards, RTC, and possibly a TSC8 Timesharing
option as I have 4 SLUs and would love to try out some timesharing.
On a side note, I'm looking to perhaps sell or trade my SOL-20 sometime
soon. It's 100% working as I restored it about 3 years ago. It works great,
but I'm looking to part with all of my S-100 equipment to focus more on
DEC.
Thanks!
6:25 p.m.
I think I lucked out on the foam, as that was one of the first things I
checked. I had to go through and replace all the form in my 8/e chassis and
that was a pretty disgusting process. These drives were used in a
production environment up until a recently and seem really well maintained,
and from the looks of it, a very clean environment. They were even shipped
to me with the heads locked properly. I'm still going to be super cognizant
of the foam when I pull the filters to check them though. Thanks!
On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 3:09 PM, Pete Lancashire <pete at petelancashire.com>
wrote:
Be very careful of the filter assembly, make sure the
foam seals are not
deteriorated to where they can add to what ends up on the platter.
On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Joshua Stetson <saburwulf at gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi there, long time viewer, first time poster.
First an introduction:
My name is Joshua Stetson and I'm a software engineer by trade. My
earliest
memories have always involved computers starting
with a DOS based Zenith
8088 where I played some of my first games.
My first foray into "classic" computing was on a Commodore 64 which my
Uncle gave me while I was still in Jr. High. I'd already been introduced
to
programming at an early age, so this machine was
an absolute treat to me
at
the time as it was my first step into assembly
language. As time
progressed, my interests turned older and I began a collection of S-100
gear including an IMSAI 8080 and a SOL-20.
Over the past couple of years, I've managed to work back even further,
piecing together a PDP-8/e system from various parts collected over the
past 4 years and now I have a fully working 8/e including 32kw of core
and
an RK05E card set. I've been running the
system using Kyle Owen's
os8diskserver and David Gesswein's sendtape utilities which both work
absolutely wonderfully. It was amazing to be able to run Adventure on a
native system!
I'd like to send a shout out to Kyle for the os8diskserver, that is some
pretty awesome work there. David for his software and archive of DEC
documentation which was indispensable for helping me debug a few boards
and
get everything running and tested. I also want to
thank Vincent Slyngstad
for his help and support on some questions.
Now to my ask:
Recently I've found a pair of RK05J drives and a few disk packs. One of
my
drives seems to be in fully working order, the
other the blower is not
working, so I'm working on fixing that right now.
I'm currently missing cabling for connect these drives to the RK05E board
set. If anyone happens to have an extra cable set they'd be willing to
part
with so I can bring these beasts back to life,
I'd appreciate it!
Ideally I would like to find the following:
7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on
the
other end
The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
The terminator card M930
At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of
the
drives, but I'd appreciate any help from
those who have more experience.
Also, I don't have a rack for this equipment yet, so I'm running it all
tabletop, but I'm in the market for a rack + rails (I only have the rails
for the equipment, but not the ones that mount to the rack itself. Any
leads on more 16-sector packs would also be appreciated! Also, still
hoping
to get the extended arithmetic boards, RTC, and
possibly a TSC8
Timesharing
option as I have 4 SLUs and would love to try out
some timesharing.
On a side note, I'm looking to perhaps sell or trade my SOL-20 sometime
soon. It's 100% working as I restored it about 3 years ago. It works
great,
but I'm looking to part with all of my S-100
equipment to focus more on
DEC.
Thanks!
6:55 p.m.
Also be careful of the air plenum, may of them are very fragile now and if it gets cracked
you are in a hard spot. And also if the foam is compressing too much it will not make a
good deal with the bottom of the pack.
The other thing to be aware of is the emergency head retract batteries are toast and
should be replaced with a 3.6v NiCd pack, that way if the power fails you don't trash
a pack.
They are really nice drives for saying they where DEC's first removable media hard
drive, a bit heavy to move but not that bad.
Matt
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 22, 2016, at 6:25 PM, Joshua Stetson
<saburwulf at gmail.com> wrote:
I think I lucked out on the foam, as that was one of the first things I
checked. I had to go through and replace all the form in my 8/e chassis and
that was a pretty disgusting process. These drives were used in a
production environment up until a recently and seem really well maintained,
and from the looks of it, a very clean environment. They were even shipped
to me with the heads locked properly. I'm still going to be super cognizant
of the foam when I pull the filters to check them though. Thanks!
On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 3:09 PM, Pete Lancashire <pete at petelancashire.com>
wrote:
> Be very careful of the filter assembly, make sure the foam seals are not
> deteriorated to where they can add to what ends up on the platter.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Joshua Stetson <saburwulf at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi there, long time viewer, first time poster. First an introduction:
>>
>> My name is Joshua Stetson and I'm a software engineer by trade. My
> earliest
>> memories have always involved computers starting with a DOS based Zenith
>> 8088 where I played some of my first games.
>>
>> My first foray into "classic" computing was on a Commodore 64 which my
>> Uncle gave me while I was still in Jr. High. I'd already been introduced
> to
>> programming at an early age, so this machine was an absolute treat to me
> at
>> the time as it was my first step into assembly language. As time
>> progressed, my interests turned older and I began a collection of S-100
>> gear including an IMSAI 8080 and a SOL-20.
>>
>> Over the past couple of years, I've managed to work back even further,
>> piecing together a PDP-8/e system from various parts collected over the
>> past 4 years and now I have a fully working 8/e including 32kw of core
> and
>> an RK05E card set. I've been running the system using Kyle Owen's
>> os8diskserver and David Gesswein's sendtape utilities which both work
>> absolutely wonderfully. It was amazing to be able to run Adventure on a
>> native system!
>>
>> I'd like to send a shout out to Kyle for the os8diskserver, that is some
>> pretty awesome work there. David for his software and archive of DEC
>> documentation which was indispensable for helping me debug a few boards
> and
>> get everything running and tested. I also want to thank Vincent Slyngstad
>> for his help and support on some questions.
>>
>> Now to my ask:
>>
>> Recently I've found a pair of RK05J drives and a few disk packs. One of
> my
>> drives seems to be in fully working order, the other the blower is not
>> working, so I'm working on fixing that right now.
>>
>> I'm currently missing cabling for connect these drives to the RK05E board
>> set. If anyone happens to have an extra cable set they'd be willing to
> part
>> with so I can bring these beasts back to life, I'd appreciate it!
>>
>> Ideally I would like to find the following:
>> 7009026 Cable which is two ribbon cables with a M933B or C flip chip on
> the
>> other end
>> The interface cable between the two drives: BC11A
>> The terminator card M930
>>
>> At minimum, I'm pretty sure I'd only need the first cable to run one of
> the
>> drives, but I'd appreciate any help from those who have more experience.
>>
>> Also, I don't have a rack for this equipment yet, so I'm running it all
>> tabletop, but I'm in the market for a rack + rails (I only have the rails
>> for the equipment, but not the ones that mount to the rack itself. Any
>> leads on more 16-sector packs would also be appreciated! Also, still
> hoping
>> to get the extended arithmetic boards, RTC, and possibly a TSC8
> Timesharing
>> option as I have 4 SLUs and would love to try out some timesharing.
>>
>> On a side note, I'm looking to perhaps sell or trade my SOL-20 sometime
>> soon. It's 100% working as I restored it about 3 years ago. It works
> great,
>> but I'm looking to part with all of my S-100 equipment to focus more on
>> DEC.
>>
>> Thanks!
>
7:23 p.m.
Also be careful of the air plenum, may of them are very fragile now and if
it gets cracked you are in a hard spot. And also if the foam is compressing
too much it will not make a good deal with the bottom of the pack.
This one looks like it's in really good condition, but I have read about
those issues. I'm just going to monitor it closely when initially mounting
packs to verify the seals and integrity. As much as I hate to do so, I know
it's common to run these without the top cover on for calibration purposes.
Any tips for that? Maybe a piece of plexiglas over the heads to avoid any
potential dust or should I not worry too much?
The other thing to be aware of is the emergency head
retract batteries are
toast and should be replaced with a 3.6v NiCd pack, that way if the power
fails you don't trash a pack.
This is also on my list of things to do. Is there anyway to test this
function without using a pack to verify it after replaced?
23 Jan
23 Jan
4:38 a.m.
On 23/01/2016 00:23, Joshua Stetson wrote:
> The other thing to be aware of is the emergency
head retract batteries are
> toast and should be replaced with a 3.6v NiCd pack, that way if the power
> fails you don't trash a pack.
This is also on my list of things to do. Is there
anyway to test this
function without using a pack to verify it after replaced?
With the power off and the drive opened up, try to pull the heads
(gently) out from the retracted position. If the battery is good,
you'll only be able to pull them out a few millimetres before they pull
back in (with some force).
I've found a common inexpensive 3-cell battery pack for a DECT phone is
an exact match. If you replace the battery, be aware that the polarity
suggested by the black/red wires on the RK05 - at least on the RK05s
I've seen - is the opposite to what you'd expect, so check it. If you
get the battery the wrong way round it will make the heads, on their
thin stainless steel arms, shoot OUT instead of in, and your hand will
most likely be in the way. You can imagine how I found this out, but
the blood cleaned off the stainless steel without any problem.
--
Pete
10:11 a.m.
This one looks like it's in really good condition, but I have read about
those issues. I'm just going to monitor it closely when initially mounting
packs to verify the seals and integrity. As much as I hate to do so, I know
it's common to run these without the top cover on for calibration purposes.
Any tips for that? Maybe a piece of plexiglas over the heads to avoid any
potential dust or should I not worry too much?
It is not a problem. The outer casing is not sealed anyway. Clean air (from the
absolute filter) is blown in the bottom of the pack, then out over the head area
If any dust gets near there it will be blown away from the heads.
Be sensible about it, don't smoke when working on these drives. But other than
that there is nothng to worry about.
The other
thing to be aware of is the emergency head retract batteries are
toast and should be replaced with a 3.6v NiCd pack, that way if the power
fails you don't trash a pack.
This is also on my list of things to do. Is there anyway to test this
function without using a pack to verify it after replaced? 
24 Jan
24 Jan
2:13 p.m.
Hi All,
Short introduction of myself:
37 Years old, living in Germany, since some time I collect all available
and affordable stuff related to PDP11 and try to get a running system
including some Drives.
In relation to the emergency head locking:
I have done basic overhaul on my RK07, and have also refreshed the NiCd
Battery.
Afterwards I was also thinking about to test this, as I would like to
know if it is working.
So maybe it helps, as it looks like it is basically near the same on the
RK05 side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HU2NhozueI
Many Greetings
Ulrich
23 Jan
23 Jan
10:05 a.m.
The other thing to be aware of is the emergency head
retract batteries are toast and should
be replaced with a 3.6v NiCd pack, that way if the power fails you don't trash a
pack.
I thought originally it was a 4.8V pack (4 cells). Over here a common cordless telephone
used the
same pack about 20 years ago, so spares for that (available quite easily) went in my
RK05s...
The RK06/RK07 has an 8 cell pack, it's exactly 2 RK05 packs in series.
They are really nice drives for saying they where
DEC's first removable media hard drive, a
bit heavy to move but not that bad.
I can't get one onto the rack sliders on my own if it's fully assembled. I
normally remove
the PSU and positioner and then it is quite easy...
-tony
5:05 p.m.
On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Joshua Stetson <saburwulf at gmail.com> wrote:
Over the past couple of years, I've managed to work back even further,
piecing together a PDP-8/e system from various parts collected over the
past 4 years and now I have a fully working 8/e including 32kw of core and
an RK05E card set. I've been running the system using Kyle Owen's
os8diskserver and David Gesswein's sendtape utilities which both work
absolutely wonderfully. It was amazing to be able to run Adventure on a
native system!
I'd like to send a shout out to Kyle for the os8diskserver, that is some
pretty awesome work there. David for his software and archive of DEC
documentation which was indispensable for helping me debug a few boards and
get everything running and tested. I also want to thank Vincent Slyngstad
for his help and support on some questions.
Always happy to hear of another happy user! Even better to hear of another
working 8/E. Hope you get your RK05 going. I am still waiting for a good
deal on an RK05; I'll probably have a custom SD card board made for the
Omnibus before that happens, though... :)
Kyle
24 Jan
24 Jan
12:31 p.m.
Always happy to hear of another happy user! Even better to hear of another
working 8/E.
I've actually got a second 8/e chassis and enough boards to get a basic 12
kiloword core system up and running. I just need to replace a boxer fan
(bearings went on one of them and it grinds), and then debug the CPU.
Ideally, I'd rather have an M than a second E though; especially since I'd
probably be running it with Vincent's SRAM board instead of the core. It
would make for the perfect portable system to take around.
Hope you get your RK05 going. I am still waiting for a good
deal on an RK05; I'll probably have a custom SD
card board made for the
Omnibus before that happens, though... :)
I hope so too! Looking at the drives themselves, I'm pretty confident as
they both look very well maintained. My RK05E card set passes the diskless
diagnostics so as soon as I get the cabling I can move onto the next steps
of bringing them back to life.
I'm interested in your SD card board however. This is something that I'd
totally go in on. Would be nice to have a board that just looks like an
RK05 so that no OS/8 patching would be required, especially if it supported
single cycle data break!
Josh
3064
days inactive
3066
days old
14 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
kylevowen＠gmail.com -
mspproductions＠gmail.com -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
pete＠petelancashire.com -
saburwulf＠gmail.com -
u.tagge＠gmx.de