12 Apr
1999
12 Apr
'99
6:27 p.m.
Dontcha just hate it when this happens? Here I am happily working away on
an 8/E chassis with boards scavenged far and wide to get it up and running.
In the course of which I'm using boards out of my 8/M that works find to
replace questionable boards to reduce the number of variables in the
equation. So the 8/E (with an 8/F front panel) is all up and running with
my hodge podge of boards and I reassemble the 8/M, turn it on and the 'RUN'
LED is stuck on. No response from the front panel halt switch state.
Argh!
--Chuck
12 Apr
12 Apr
11:52 p.m.
Dontcha just hate it when this happens? Here I am
happily working away on
an 8/E chassis with boards scavenged far and wide to get it up and running.
In the course of which I'm using boards out of my 8/M that works find to
replace questionable boards to reduce the number of variables in the
equation. So the 8/E (with an 8/F front panel) is all up and running with
my hodge podge of boards and I reassemble the 8/M, turn it on and the 'RUN'
LED is stuck on. No response from the front panel halt switch state.
Hey, DEC field service lives on. ;)
Sorry to our former or current DECy Techies, but I am reminded of the old joke:
How long does it take a DEC field service person to change a flat tire?
Depends on how many flat tires they brought with them.
13 Apr
13 Apr
2:39 a.m.
Dontcha just
hate it when this happens? Here I am happily working away on
an 8/E chassis with boards scavenged far and wide to get it up and running.
In the course of which I'm using boards out of my 8/M that works find to
replace questionable boards to reduce the number of variables in the
equation. So the 8/E (with an 8/F front panel) is all up and running with
my hodge podge of boards and I reassemble the 8/M, turn it on and the 'RUN'
LED is stuck on. No response from the front panel halt switch state.
Hey, DEC field service lives on. ;)
Sorry to our former or current DECy Techies, but I am reminded of the old joke:
How long does it take a DEC field service person to change a flat tire?
Depends on how many flat tires they brought with them. 
3:14 a.m.
At 07:39 13/04/99 -0400, Bill Pechter wrote:
I thought the joke went something like:
Customer (to FS droid): What took you so long, this was an urgent call.
FS droid: Well I had a flat tyre and I changed the other three before I
found the one that was flat...
With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have worked with over the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
> Sorry to our former or current DECy Techies, but I
am reminded of the
old joke:
How long does it take a DEC field service person to change a flat tire?
Depends on how many flat tires they brought with them.
What do they do when they run out of tires.
They change the alternator because it must be a power supply problem. 
12 Apr
12 Apr
6:39 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: Huw Davies <H.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: Sigh. Bringing up a PDP-8/M
With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have
worked with over
the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were
worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
I'd really love to hear about that one.....:^)
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
VK5KDR
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie, South Australia
geoffrob(a)stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
13 Apr
13 Apr
3:31 p.m.
At 13:09 13/04/99 +0930, Geoff Roberts wrote:
Well this was several (many?) years ago when I managed a VAX-11/780 (1.25Mb
memory, 2xRM03, 1xRM80, 1xDZ11, 1xTE16 and a Printronix printer). Life was
so much easier then! We'd had some problems with the TE16 (half inch tape
drive for those not intimately familiar with 15 year old Digital hardware).
I can't remember what the problem was but we got a new FS engineer out to
check it out. I'm not sure of the details but I guess he connected the
power up wrong cause when he turned the TE16 back on the lights in the
computer room dimmed and suddenly large amounts of magic smoke (along with
some nice orange/yellow/green flames were visible (the TE16 was out on its
sliders). The fire was put out (by me) using a CO2 extinguisher.
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
With apologies
to all the good DEC FS guys that I have worked with over
the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were
worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
I'd really love to hear about that one.....:^)
4:23 p.m.
Well this was several (many?) years ago when I managed
a VAX-11/780 (1.25Mb
memory, 2xRM03, 1xRM80, 1xDZ11, 1xTE16 and a Printronix printer). Life was
so much easier then! We'd had some problems with the TE16 (half inch tape
drive for those not intimately familiar with 15 year old Digital hardware).
I can't remember what the problem was but we got a new FS engineer out to
check it out. I'm not sure of the details but I guess he connected the
power up wrong cause when he turned the TE16 back on the lights in the
computer room dimmed and suddenly large amounts of magic smoke (along with
some nice orange/yellow/green flames were visible (the TE16 was out on its
sliders). The fire was put out (by me) using a CO2 extinguisher.
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
Sounds like fun. I've never seen a TE16 hooked up wrong.
Didn't know it was possible, since it just plugged into the power supply
and that plugged to the power conditioner.
I remember when the NY Telephone union electricians
went home at 4pm just about when they blew out one of the three phases
to the entire switching center computer room.
Alarms went off on all the monitoring hardware. A lot of stuff
crashed and blinking lights above the machines kicked in and blinked
and rotated...
Boy, I've never heard the clicking of those 860 power controllers
like that.
Sparks actually came out of the 11/70 I was installing at the time.
Needless to say, I dropped power, pulled plugs and went home after I
was told the electricians would not be back to work on it before 5pm.
Now I see why they like everything they have to run on the 48volt
DC so they can run it all off the batteries and not depend on the
AC input.
Bill
---
bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org
Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC,
The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.
4:01 a.m.
FS droid: Well I had a flat tyre and I changed the
other three before I
found the one that was flat...
With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have worked with over the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
And back at CSSE we used to laugh at how the bad tires would be put back
in the chevy kit to be sent out on a ford job!
Allison
7:39 a.m.
FS droid: Well
I had a flat tyre and I changed the other three before I
found the one that was flat...
With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have worked with over the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
And back at CSSE we used to laugh at how the bad tires would be put back
in the chevy kit to be sent out on a ford job!
Allison 
3:50 p.m.
New subject: Field Service/Installation
FS droid: Well I had a flat tyre and I changed the
other three before I
found the one that was flat...
With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have worked with over the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
First I want to prefix this by saying this wasn't a DEC FS problem
even though it involved a new PDP-11/44 installation.
Many years ago (during my Freshman year of college), we got a new
11/44 for the main administrative machine. (We also got a VAX 11/780
for the academic machine that same year.) Now to save money, the
college bought a 3rd party tape drive from Plessey. It seems that
the installation guy Plessey sent out didn't know one end of an
11/44 from the other, literally. Appearantly, he connected something
backwards. Between the stories I heard at the time and what little
I've been able figure out since, I think he managed to connect the
power to the backplane backwards. DEC told us that it was supposed
to be impossible, but he managed to blow the board set anyway.
Fortunately, Plessey made good on the deal and paid for the dead
boards.
The best part of the story was a while later, my roommates and I
attended the National Computer Conference in Chicago. One of the
vendors there was, of course, Plessey. Just for fun, a couple of
us walked up to the booth and just loitered a bit. One of the
salesmen walked toward us with the standard sales smile. As he
glanced down at our nametages (afterall, a salesman needs to address
you by name) he suddenly looked ill and turned away. Another
rep came up and asked if she could help us. We said "We don't
think so," and told her the story. Here classic response was
something along the lines of "Oh, I heard about that. He doesn't
work for us anymore."
Brian L. Stuart
5:39 a.m.
New subject: Re-introduction
I was on this list for several months, and somehow got dropped from it, a
few months ago. Because things were rather hectic for me, I didn't bother
renewing right away.
Once again, I want to express my appreciation for the caliber of
individuals posting to this list, and my awe at the notion that I might
have anything to contribute that could be of much interest to those on this
list. I'm a rank beginner to computing, compared to many who post here.
Nevertheless, due to circumstance I've managed to accumulate a fair amount
of soft- and hardware, and I'm at the place where I need to divest myself
of the bulk of it, in order to go on to other things. Because I'm in need
of money, I've chosen eBay to be the conduit for most of this divestment. I
have a few items that are currently running on eBay, and several more that
will be added in the near future. You might want to bookmark my 'items for
sale" page, and watch it over the next several weeks:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItemsLinkButtons&use…
side
I currently have two items running, a Corona PPC-22 (8088) lugable (really
nice!), and a Sanyo MBC-1000 cp/m. Future items include a Vector 4, a
Kaypro 2 w/software/manuals, a Macintosh 128k (Jan 1985), a Mac SE and
enhancements, a fairly large library of cp/m manuals, and sundry other odd
pieces. I've had an unsuccessful attempt at a sale, that I thought was
interesting, you can view at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP.dll?ViewItem&item=84722321
It concerns a Quadra 950/601 PPC Upgrade Card, set up to run OS 8.5.1 (they
said it couldn't be done!), I've included links on the page showing how to
do it, and what makes this combo a collectible, IMHO! Contact me off-list
if you're interested in this, or in any of this. -Jim Weiler aka Heavyside
on eBay
p.s. I may keep this list informed of my items being listed as they come
up, depending on how this is received. If I get flamed by those I respect,
forget it! ;-)
Heavyside on eBay Online Auctions * mailto:native-sun@usa.net
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItemsLinkButtons&use…
side
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=heavyside
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
7:41 a.m.
With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have
worked with over the
years (and no apology for the one or two who were worse than useless - the
TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
OK -- Spill it. A TE16 on FIRE. What was the cause?
What did FS do?
I flamed two TU45's during SUP/SUS TUP/TUS adjustments (the power supplies
just couldn't handle it).
Bill
---
bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org
Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC,
The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.
8:41 a.m.
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2:56 p.m.
At 06:41 PM 4/13/99 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
Hey, that's another reason _not_ to do
board-swapping ;-)
DEC FSE jokes aside, how else might you bring up a random collection of
boards? My strategy was this:
1.) Debug the chassis.
2.) Install components from a working 8/M.
3.) Replace componets from the working 8/M with questionable
components.
3a.) If the replaced component failed: Fix it.
3b.) If the replaced component worked: Move to the next one.
OK... First thing is to clean out the backplane in the
8/m. Use a vacuum
cleaner to remove loose dust and then squirt isopropyl alcohol
(propan-2-ol) into the connectors.
I've done that, although that foam is damn sticky. (Twice I've debugged
problems which consisted of plugging in the "defective card" scoping it,
removing it, noticing another bit of gunk on the fingers, cleaning the
fingers and the slot again, inserting the card and having it work.
Then assemble a minimal system. IIRC you don't even
need memory. Just the
clock/timing card, the 2 CPU cards and the bus loads.
It is a minimal system :-) Actually I could remove the core stack and run
just the CPU and loads, I'll do this tonight.
Then, if it still doesn't halt, check the power
supply. I can't remember
what the power good line will make the CPU do if it's in the wrong state,
but I don't think it forces the CPU to the RUN state (unlike the 11/45...)
Power supply is good, its the first thing I checked [switcher type B]
(4.96v and -15.01v and +14.99v) with the minimal system installed.
BTW, the "best" tool I've found for working on PDP-8s is the Radio Shack
scope probe. Its more than fast enough to look at the signals. I suspect a
Logic Dart would be better but I've not had enough funds for that toy yet.
--Chuck
3:12 p.m.
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9215
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14 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
allisonp＠world.std.com -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
blstuart＠bellsouth.net -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au -
H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au -
mikeford＠netwiz.net -
native-sun＠usa.net -
pechter＠pechter.dyndns.org