Purchased a Microvax 3800

[Mark G. Thomas]

Hi Devin,

I upgraded my 3300 to a KA660 CPU and a CQD SCSI controller. If you 
are patient, sometimes QBUS SCSI controllers show up on e-bay much 
cheaper than the reqularly listed several hundred dollar ones. I
paid around $75.

As much as I love old CPUs, I've lost my patience with hard disk drives.
I've been using AztecMonster (search ebay) CF-SCSI adapters, with several-GB
CF cards instead of spinning disks. The KA660 and several PDP-11/83s
here run reliably from CF storage. I see now there are SCSI2SD cards for 
half the price of the AztecMonster CF adapters I've been using. These 
might be an alternative, if they play okay with whatever q-bus SCSI 
controller you find. Installing from SCSI CDROM and using flash 
storage is definitely the way to go if you can get the parts.

Mark

On Thu, Dec 03, 2015 at 12:22:29AM -0500, devin davison wrote:
> Thank you for all the helpful information Glen.  I will definately grab
> that scsi interface when i get the funds, I have a scsi cd drive already to
> be used with my SGi gear.
> 
> I removed that cpu board out and took a couple of pictures. There is one
> connector, on the top, with two notches in it. Same as the controller board
> I just bought. I would assume that is the DSSI connector?
> 
> http://postimg.org/gallery/1iafnu1oa/
> 
> I have a stockpile of scsi disks over here, i might just need to save up
> and get the better controller that works with disks as well as cdrom's
> 
> I've yet to find the battery, but that is next on my list, thanks for the
> suggestion.
> 
> 
> --Devin
> 
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 12:03 AM, Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 7:25 PM, devin davison <lyokoboy0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Just figured id post about it here, to  show my progress twords getting
> > it
> > > running.
> > >
> > > http://postimg.org/gallery/fztxjqbe/
> >
> > Another tip: If you haven't done so already, remove the CPU console
> > panel and check to see if there is still a NiCad battery pack
> > installed. The battery pack is mounted under the console panel PCB and
> > you have to remove a few screws holding the PCB in place to get to it.
> > If the pack is still installed then remove it. If it hasn't already
> > started leaking it is only a matter of time before it does and starts
> > corroding the PCB.
> >

-- 
Mark G. Thomas (Mark at Misty.com), KC3DRE