Yes there is a PDP 10 front panel and Kenbak on Ebay

[Bill Degnan]

On Fri, Apr 5, 2019 at 11:32 AM Noel Chiappa via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

>     > From: Guy Dunphy
>
>     > What I want to know is, how do front panels of historic computers so
>     > often get separated from the rest of the computer?
>
> <snip>
>
> Here's what probably happened: the machines were about to be scrapped, and
> saving the whole machine wasn't practical - often, in part, because those
> machines were _huge_. (The CPU _alone_ of a KA10 would fill an entire room
> of
> a normal house.) So, one has a limit to what one can do. So the choice is
> to
> save the front panel alone... or to save nothing.
>
>         Noel
>

It is also possible that some front panels were removed and set aside back
when the associated computer was in production, i,e, due to a fault in the
panel.  The original computer long ago separated and recycled but the panel
remained in the storage closet until discovered by an employee who was
allowed to take home as a souvenir, many years later.   "I remember when I
worked on that ..."

I am thankful to have been able to rescue a few orphaned front panels of
extinct machines.  With simH and a Raspberry Pi there is a way to give them
a new life.

B