Need DEC BC80J-20 cable - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

17 Jan 2014

On Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:13:34 -0600, you wrote:

...
 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 12:40 PM, Charles
<charlesmorris800 at centurytel.net> wrote:
  I attempted to order the BC80M from Pinnacle
Micro... an email canceling
 the order without explanation... they didn't have the cable in stock (and
 they claim their inventory is only updated periodically) 
Or they tried calling around and couldn't find one to buy cheaply
enough to sell to you. 
Our suspicious minds seem to be working the same way :D

...
   Meanwhile, I
explained to Continental Computers that my need for the
 BC80J-20 was hobby/"vintage" and that I couldn't afford $145. They
 offered to sell it to me for $75, still steep but more reasonable. 
I have had good luck with Continental Computers in the pasts.  ISTR
buying a KT8A from them about 15 years ago.

  Plugged it in, hooked up the RL02's... same
failure is still there :(
 (Fault lamp flashes when BOOT is toggled and the heads start to move,
 then the drive goes back to Ready status). Time to start downloading
 diagnostics via the console port! 
I have never had to debug drive electronics, so I have no idea.  Do
you happen to have a PDP-11 and an RL controller?  If I were chasing a
problem in my own hardware, I'd see how a different system/controller
handled things (but I know not everyone has a matrix of DEC hardware
to mix and match from).

-ethan 
Funny you should ask. In fact I do have an 11/23+ with two RL02's
(that works fine even with the homemade ribbon cable, although it's
shorter than the one in the 8/A).

Now that I have a long enough cable, I am planning to do just that
(plug it into the RLV11 or whatever the controller is called) and see
what's what.

I also have one of Philipp Hachtmann's USB-port console interface
cards that I haven't got around to playing with yet, and may use that
to download diagnostics too.

-Charles