31 May
2012
31 May
'12
2:14 a.m.
Hi everyone,
I won an eBay auction for three Philips P800 family minis with three
cartridge disc drives, disc cartridges, lots of spare parts, and manuals
including schematics. All for the incredible sum of 10 euros 75. I saw the
auction when it had 11 minutes left to go while I was on vacation (I'm a bit
of an eBay junkie, although deals like this are becoming rare). I'm
collecting the systems this Sunday afternoon.
As the manuals are all in binders, I'm planning on feeding them all through
a scanner and posting them to bitsavers.
Now, I seem to recall that Tony Duell has some experience with these
systems. Is there anything I should be aware of before loading them on a
trailer? Do the disc drive heads need to be locked in some way? When I've
picked up the stuff, I'll post model and part numbers. Any advice offered on
how to get them going again would be very welcome.
Cheers,
Camiel.
31 May
31 May
7:30 a.m.
Hello Camiel
The P800 hardware is also used in the PTS 6000 series, where PTS means
Philips Terminal System. As it happens, some PTS colleagues have a lunch
meeting tomorrow in Copenhagen :-)
I myself have used the PTS series for 4-5 years, while in Philips Data
Systems. my guess is that the drives are 2,5 megs; on the 6000 we had a
high capacity version, a whopping 5 MB !
Good Luck !
/Nico
Hi everyone,
I won an eBay auction for three Philips P800 family minis with three
cartridge disc drives, disc cartridges, lots of spare parts, and manuals
including schematics. All for the incredible sum of 10 euros 75. I saw the
auction when it had 11 minutes left to go while I was on vacation (I'm a
bit
of an eBay junkie, although deals like this are becoming rare). I'm
collecting the systems this Sunday afternoon.
As the manuals are all in binders, I'm planning on feeding them all
through
a scanner and posting them to bitsavers.
Now, I seem to recall that Tony Duell has some experience with these
systems. Is there anything I should be aware of before loading them on a
trailer? Do the disc drive heads need to be locked in some way? When I've
picked up the stuff, I'll post model and part numbers. Any advice offered
on
how to get them going again would be very welcome.
Cheers,
Camiel.
8:16 a.m.
Thinking of the P800, if anybody has any of the viewdata host software
that Philips developed in-house for the P800 series, tail end of the
1970s, then I would love to find a copy... (and is there an emulator
for the hardware....?)
ref: (paragraph at the end of page 1, start page 2, of this document -)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=1jkkX5FdDf_Jr0TVzhpdprDX2l2LUc_w1gexIj_iD4G…
Same goes for the host for the Redifusion kit mentioned in the article
too, or, indeed, any host software, database backups, or pretty much
anything viewdata/videotex related :-)
Rob.
On 31 May 2012 15:30, <nico at farumdata.dk> wrote:
Hello Camiel
The P800 hardware is also used in the PTS 6000 series, where PTS means
Philips Terminal System. As it happens, some PTS colleagues have a lunch
meeting tomorrow in Copenhagen :-)
I myself have used the PTS series for 4-5 years, while in Philips Data
Systems. my guess is that the drives are 2,5 megs; on the 6000 we had a
high capacity version, a whopping 5 MB !
Good Luck !
/Nico
Hi everyone,
I won an eBay auction for three Philips P800 family minis with three
cartridge disc drives, disc cartridges, lots of spare parts, and manuals
including schematics. All for the incredible sum of 10 euros 75. I saw the
auction when it had 11 minutes left to go while I was on vacation (I'm a
bit
of an eBay junkie, although deals like this are becoming rare). I'm
collecting the systems this Sunday afternoon.
As the manuals are all in binders, I'm planning on feeding them all
through
a scanner and posting them to bitsavers.
Now, I seem to recall that Tony Duell has some experience with these
systems. Is there anything I should be aware of before loading them on a
trailer? Do the disc drive heads need to be locked in some way? When I've
picked up the stuff, I'll post model and part numbers. Any advice offered
on
how to get them going again would be very welcome.
Cheers,
Camiel.
7:33 a.m.
Awesome !
What an entertainment for the summer (I don't like beach) to put the hands
on one of these...
Good luck and congrats.
SPc
2012/5/31 Camiel Vanderhoeven <camiel at camicom.com>
Hi everyone,
I won an eBay auction for three Philips P800 family minis with three
cartridge disc drives, disc cartridges, lots of spare parts, and manuals
including schematics. All for the incredible sum of 10 euros 75. I saw the
auction when it had 11 minutes left to go while I was on vacation (I'm a
bit
of an eBay junkie, although deals like this are becoming rare). I'm
collecting the systems this Sunday afternoon.
As the manuals are all in binders, I'm planning on feeding them all through
a scanner and posting them to bitsavers.
Now, I seem to recall that Tony Duell has some experience with these
systems. Is there anything I should be aware of before loading them on a
trailer? Do the disc drive heads need to be locked in some way? When I've
picked up the stuff, I'll post model and part numbers. Any advice offered
on
how to get them going again would be very welcome.
Cheers,
Camiel.
11:32 a.m.
Hi everyone,
I won an eBay auction for three Philips P800 family minis with three
cartridge disc drives, disc cartridges, lots of spare parts, and manuals
Wow!. Let me know what models they are. All P800 stuff is pretty rare
(compared to, say, PDP11s), so you have some nice toys...
including schematics. All for the incredible sum of 10
euros 75. I saw the
auction when it had 11 minutes left to go while I was on vacation (I'm a bit
of an eBay junkie, although deals like this are becoming rare). I'm
collecting the systems this Sunday afternoon.
As the manuals are all in binders, I'm planning on feeding them all through
a scanner and posting them to bitsavers.
I look forward to being able to read them.
Now, I seem to recall that Tony Duell has some experience with these
systems. Is there anything I should be aware of before loading them on a
trailer? Do the disc drive heads need to be locked in some way? When I've
picked up the stuff, I'll post model and part numbers. Any advice offered on
how to get them going again would be very welcome.
I have some experience of these machines, I own a P850, a P851 and a
P854,.the last 2 with floppy drives. Alas I don't have the cartridge hard
disk (for some reason there is the controlelr for it in the P854).
Tje machines and floppy drives need not special precaution for moving
them. Be warned they are heavy, and it helps to have a second person....
As for the cartridge drive, I'd take the cover off before driving home
with it) and inspect the positioner). Try _very_ carefully_ to pull the
carriage towards the speindle. If it will move (and don't pull it far
enough to load the heads!), it needs to be restrained. If there's a
locking bracket it'll be quite obvious, you may have to remove it, turn
it round and screw it back in place, for example.
As for powering them up, again, nothing special. The noraml visual
inspection, then test the PSUs on dummy load is all you need to do.
These machines vary a bit in the CPU design. The P850 is hard-wired
logic. The P855, 852, 856, etc are microcoded TTL (I think). The P851 is
custom Philips bitslice ICs. The P854 is AMD2900 bitslice. The P853 (I
think) is a custom single-chip LSI implementation of the processor.
-tony
11:43 p.m.
On 5/31/12, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
As for the cartridge drive, I'd take the cover off
before driving home
with it) and inspect the positioner). Try _very_ carefully_ to pull the
carriage towards the speindle. If it will move (and don't pull it far
enough to load the heads!), it needs to be restrained. If there's a
locking bracket it'll be quite obvious, you may have to remove it, turn
it round and screw it back in place, for example.
From the pictures on eBay, the disc drives look like
they are the P824
type mentioned in the P856 manuals on Theo Engels' site
(http://www.theoengel.nl/P800/P856-P857_System_Handbook_p4.pdf). This
manual mentions that the cartridges are IBM 5440 compatible. The drive
pictured in the book looks very similar to an IBM 5444 (with the big
clamps on each side). Any moving procedures for these drives that
anyone's interested in? Disk alignment issues I should be aware of?
As for powering them up, again, nothing special. The
noraml visual
inspection, then test the PSUs on dummy load is all you need to do.
That's the usual routine. I'm figuring these have heavy linear power
supplies, right?
These machines vary a bit in the CPU design. The P850
is hard-wired
logic. The P855, 852, 856, etc are microcoded TTL (I think). The P851 is
custom Philips bitslice ICs. The P854 is AMD2900 bitslice. The P853 (I
think) is a custom single-chip LSI implementation of the processor.
I think Jos correctly identified the blinkenlights one as a P856 or
P857. The other two look like they might be P854's. Will post actual
model numbers and card id's once I've picked them up.
I also need to find a way to haul these upstairs... I don't think my
wife will be all that thrilled to have them sit in the living room for
a prolongued period.
Cheers,
Camiel
1 Jun
1 Jun
1:53 p.m.
From the pictures on eBay, the disc drives look
like they are the P824
type mentioned in the P856 manuals on Theo Engels' site
(http://www.theoengel.nl/P800/P856-P857_System_Handbook_p4.pdf). This
manual mentions that the cartridges are IBM 5440 compatible. The drive
pictured in the book looks very similar to an IBM 5444 (with the big
clamps on each side). Any moving procedures for these drives that
anyone's interested in? Disk alignment issues I should be aware of?
I think you need to ispect them and find if the cariage needs locking and
if so, how to do it. Oh, and if possible, remvoe the disk pack from the
drive before moving it too.
As for alignemtn, don't dismantle the heads or positioner unless you have
the alignment pack, and don't fiddle with any presets or repalce
components in the servo circuit unless you have to. Otherwise no real
problems/
As for powering them up, again, nothing special.
The noraml visual
inspection, then test the PSUs on dummy load is all you need to do.
That's the usual routine. I'm figuring these have heavy linear power
supplies, right? These machines vary a bit in the CPU design. The
P850 is hard-wired
logic. The P855, 852, 856, etc are microcoded TTL (I think). The P851 is
custom Philips bitslice ICs. The P854 is AMD2900 bitslice. The P853 (I
think) is a custom single-chip LSI implementation of the processor.
I think Jos correctly identified the blinkenlights one as a P856 or
P857. The other two look like they might be P854's. Will post actual
model numbers and card id's once I've picked them up.
I also need to find a way to haul these upstairs... I don't think my
wife will be all that thrilled to have them sit in the living room for
a prolongued period.
The P854 CPU is quite light (I can easily carry it). The 856 looks a lot
heavier (for example, I can lift a P850, but wouldn't want to carry it
very far), the driveare probably heavy too.
Don;'t forget these thins come apart, though. Pullign all the PCBs makes
a suprising difference to the weight, just make sure you know which slots
they go back in. Similarly removing the PSUs can help (and you might want
to do that anyway to be able to inspect them.
-tony
4357
days inactive
4358
days old
6 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
camiel＠camicom.com -
iamcamiel＠gmail.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
robert＠irrelevant.com -
spedraja＠ono.com