23 Jan
2008
23 Jan
'08
7:27 p.m.
Hi,
I've had a very dead DEC 350 in the shed for a while now and I've just
had a look at it, there are a lot of chips on it I can use.
But before I give everyone here a heart attack, is there any chance of
rescue? When I turn it on the 4 numbered LED's come on immediately, as
does the green DC light. Then nothing. Not a blip.
I tried removing all unneeded cards and still nothing. Is this thing
absolutely dead? Or can it be saved.
Also, is there any information for the three LSI-11 chips on it -
pinouts etc? I haven't been able to find anything about them anywhere.
Perhaps they remained proprietary to DEC. I'd like to see them out of
curiosity, and if the 350 itself proves to be completely dead I'll see
if I can wire them up on some prototype board and have a play around.
One chip is labeled (perhaps it's a FPU, I don't know)
DEC 304 E
21-15542-01
6436-40
I 8352 (that looks like a date code)
The other two have two dies each (which I guess is the processor itself)
IC 1, Left (closest to pin 1):
DEC 303E
23-001C7-AA
6319-29
8348 TIWAN (date code again)
Right:
evidence of a label exists, but it's unreadable
IC 2, Left:
DEC 303E
23-002C7-AA
6587-03
8425
Right:
DEC 303E
23-203C7-AA
6638-10
8422
there is also some print on the ceramic itself
IC1:
57000001A1
and a date code
IC2:
57000101A1
date code
Any information about these chips or the DEC Pro 350 is appreciated!
Thanks,
Alexis.
23 Jan
23 Jan
8:05 p.m.
Hi,
I've had a very dead DEC 350 in the shed for a while now and I've just
had a look at it, there are a lot of chips on it I can use.
But before I give everyone here a heart attack, is there any chance of
rescue? When I turn it on the 4 numbered LED's come on immediately, as
does the green DC light. Then nothing. Not a blip.
IIRC, the LEDs are turned on by a hardware reset, and then changed in
state by the processor. So all on implies that the processor isn't
running. Maybe it's being held in a reset state due to the power OK line
from the PSU or something.
I tried removing all unneeded cards and still nothing. Is this thing
absolutely dead? Or can it be saved.
Also, is there any information for the three LSI-11 chips on it -
pinouts etc? I haven't been able to find anything about them anywhere.
Perhaps they remained proprietary to DEC. I'd like to see them out of
They are DEC custom, but there should be some data on them. They're the
same chips as used in the PDP11/23 CPU board.
-tony
8:32 p.m.
On 24/01/2008, at 11:35 AM, Tony Duell wrote:
The reset line for the F-11 (just looked it up, it's not an LSI-11)
would be useful to know now. I'll continue looking.
But even then I don't have a proper monitor for it! I've got a 21" RGB
for my VAXstation 4000-60 but I doubt it'll handle the resolution of
the 350. I've got the video and keyboard cable for the 350 however. I
won't try it until someone gives me the all clear.
Thanks,
Alexis.
Hi,
I've had a very dead DEC 350 in the shed for a while now and I've just
had a look at it, there are a lot of chips on it I can use.
But before I give everyone here a heart attack, is there any chance of
rescue? When I turn it on the 4 numbered LED's come on immediately, as
does the green DC light. Then nothing. Not a blip.
IIRC, the LEDs are turned on by a hardware reset, and then changed in
state by the processor. So all on implies that the processor isn't
running. Maybe it's being held in a reset state due to the power OK
line
from the PSU or something. 
9:25 p.m.
On Thu, 24 Jan 2008, Alexis wrote:
But even then I don't have a proper monitor for
it! I've got a 21" RGB
for my VAXstation 4000-60 but I doubt it'll handle the resolution of
the 350. I've got the video and keyboard cable for the 350 however. I
won't try it until someone gives me the all clear.
Isn't the pro just composite-out? Maybe wire up a DB15 to try an Apple II
monitor in place of the usual VR201. I haven't tried this myself but I
will if you need confirmation.
Regards,
--
Eric Josephson
9:31 p.m.
On Wednesday 23 January 2008 20:32, Alexis wrote:
On 24/01/2008, at 11:35 AM, Tony Duell wrote:
The reset line for the F-11 (just looked it up, it's not an LSI-11)
would be useful to know now. I'll continue looking.
But even then I don't have a proper monitor for it! I've got a 21"
RGB for my VAXstation 4000-60 but I doubt it'll handle the resolution
of the 350. I've got the video and keyboard cable for the 350
however. I won't try it until someone gives me the all clear.
If you have any sort of NTSC-rate TV or monitor, with a composite input,
you can use it to display the video from the Pro. It may overscan a
bit, and text isn't as clear as a VR201, but it still works fairly
well.
The pinout was covered a few years ago (a reply to my request for that
info, actually) here:
http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/attachments/20031124/f2d21027/at…
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
Hi,
I've had a very dead DEC 350 in the shed for a while now and I've
just had a look at it, there are a lot of chips on it I can use.
But before I give everyone here a heart attack, is there any
chance of rescue? When I turn it on the 4 numbered LED's come on
immediately, as does the green DC light. Then nothing. Not a blip.
IIRC, the LEDs are turned on by a hardware reset, and then changed
in state by the processor. So all on implies that the processor
isn't running. Maybe it's being held in a reset state due to the
power OK line
from the PSU or something. 
10:47 p.m.
On Thu, Jan 24, 2008 at 12:02:01PM +1030, Alexis wrote:
The reset line for the F-11 (just looked it up,
it's not an LSI-11)
would be useful to know now. I'll continue looking.
Right... F-11, same as the 11/23 and 11/24 (as someone else has already
mentioned).
But even then I don't have a proper monitor for
it! I've got a 21" RGB
for my VAXstation 4000-60 but I doubt it'll handle the resolution of
the 350. I've got the video and keyboard cable for the 350 however. I
won't try it until someone gives me the all clear.
This comes up every once in a while on the list, but the DA15 that normally
goes to either a VR201 (mono) or a VR241 (color) _does_ have a simple RS-170
"composite" NTSC video-out on it (the other pins are color, keyboard, and
power lines). With a DA-15-to-RCA cable, you could just hook up a "standard"
mono monitor to your Pro350. Dunno if it would work on a modern LCD w/RCA
composite-in, but it might.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 24-Jan-2008 at 03:40 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -30.1 F (-34.5 C) Windchill -46.0 F (-43.3 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 4.4 kts Grid 91 Barometer 686.3 mb (10391 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
24 Jan
24 Jan
4:27 a.m.
On Thursday 24 January 2008 03:47:30 Ethan Dicks wrote:
This comes up every once in a while on the list, but
the DA15 that normally
goes to either a VR201 (mono) or a VR241 (color) _does_ have a simple
RS-170 "composite" NTSC video-out on it (the other pins are color,
keyboard, and power lines). With a DA-15-to-RCA cable, you could just hook
up a "standard" mono monitor to your Pro350. Dunno if it would work on a
modern LCD w/RCA composite-in, but it might.
Since it's got colour outputs and runs at more-or-less normal TV scan rates,
you may be able to hook it up to a SCART connector and plug it into a TV.
Any VR201-using stuff I had in the past didn't have colour, so I haven't tried
it.
Gordon
2:31 p.m.
The reset line for the F-11 (just looked it up,
it's not an LSI-11)
would be useful to know now. I'll continue looking.
What you need is the field maintenance printset for the PDP11/23 or
PDP11/24 CPU board. I don't have either, alas, are they on-line anywhere?
But even then I don't have a proper monitor for it! I've got a 21" RGB
for my VAXstation 4000-60 but I doubt it'll handle the resolution of
the 350. I've got the video and keyboard cable for the 350 however. I
won't try it until someone gives me the all clear.
The video from the Profesional (and indeed from the 'Bow and Decmates) is
stnadard RS-170 TV-rate composite video. If you have the colour card
fitted, it's sync-on-green RS-170 timings (that is, the green signal is a
RS-170 composite signal, the red and blue signals are video only, no
syncs). I would have thought you could find something to display that.
-tony
3:48 p.m.
What you need is the field maintenance printset for
the PDP11/23 or
PDP11/24 CPU board. I don't have either, alas, are they on-line
anywhere?
Bitsavers.org to the rescue!
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1124/
The video from the Profesional (and indeed from the
'Bow and Decmates)
is
stnadard RS-170 TV-rate composite video. If you have the colour card
fitted, it's sync-on-green RS-170 timings (that is, the green signal
is a
RS-170 composite signal, the red and blue signals are video only, no
syncs). I would have thought you could find something to display that.
Ethan Dicks has suggested that a composite monitor will do. I've got a
Commodore Amiga monitor here with SCART, I'll wire it up to that. It
works at 60Hz (I'm in Australia - 50Hz PAL). Thanks for the tip too,
Ethan.
Looking at the schematics and descriptions for the F-11 CPU, it is
*very* tricky. A lot of the timings are handled externally. Still, it
would be cool to prototype a F-11 board - but first I'll see if I can
get the 350 humming.
Thanks!
Alexis.
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-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
ericj＠speakeasy.org -
ethan.dicks＠usap.gov -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org