A very sad PDP-8/S

[Bob Rosenbloom]

    On Saturday, November 3, 2018 7:14 AM, Adrian Stoness via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
 

 get some thick plexi glass to cover it and sit it up for display to look in
but not touch ;)

On Sat, Nov 3, 2018 at 9:08 AM Guy Dunphy via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:

> At 04:34 AM 3/11/2018 -0700, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote:
> >On 11/3/18 1:00 AM, Guy Dunphy via cctalk wrote:
> >
> >> I only received this machine on Thursday, opened the box properly on
> Friday and found it was missing such
> >> such major parts. It belongs to the ACMS (Australian Computer Museum
> Society) but with the way things are
> >> going with them and their storage space ongoing misfortunes, I may be
> 'looking after it for them' indefinitely.
> >> (grins)
> >
> >The loss of a non-profit collecting institution is nothing to "grin"
> about.
> >I hope you start thinking about who it will go to when you die.
> >
> >Also, since it isn't yours, did you tell them you intend to 'restore' it?
>
>
> Al, a few points:
>
> 1. This and several other items from their collection were passed
> specificaly to me BY THE ACMS last week, on their
>    initiative, since their storage situation has deteriorated further. The
> executive of ACMS have visited my workshop,
>    and know my capabilities and intentions.
>
> 2. I'm not grinning about the tragic lack of support for tech museums in
> this country (Australia.) If you knew me at all,
>    you'd know my opinions of why that is, and what a disaster it is.
>    I'm grinning about having a chance to preserve such a nice machine,
> myself. This should be obvious to anyone who wasn't
>    predisposed to a hostile attitude, for some reason.
>
> 3. I'm currently only evaluating options for restoring it. And will
> discuss with ACMS before doing anything, apart from
>    making a screw-on protection for the wire-wrap backplane asap. (Next
> week, need to buy some aluminum sections.)
>    It will be a *long time* before I can seriously begin on it, due to the
> length of my work queue. Which doesn't mean
>    I can't start trying to locate information and parts now.
>
> 3. It seems you have time to go out of your way to criticise in a
> situation you know little about, but you don't have
>    time to find that Documation TM200 physical manual you recalled seeing
> at bitsavers, and repeatedly ignore me when
>    I ask you about where it is now, what are your plans for it, can I
> borrow or buy it from you, etc.
>    Since I'm restoring a TM200, and so far yours is the only sighted copy
> of a manual anywhere, that's disappointing.
>
> 4. 'When I die' - this is a known issue. Though thankfully not an urgent
> one. Australia is very different to the USA.
>
> Guy
>
>

My PDP-8s had an external DEC power supply. Just a simple constant voltage transformer, diodes and caps.DEC original. Looks like all of the cards are there, I/O was done externally to the 8s. The missing light boardlooks to be the only problem and it would not be too hard to make. No parts except the lamps.
Bob