Serial UNIBUS Repeater?

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Jun 15, 2015, at 21:20, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Mine did start out as the 'packaged' system in the half-rack, and I intend to keep it in that cabinet. 
> Obviously I will keep the CPU and R80, but I am not sure if the tape drive is the most useful 
> third unit at this stage.


In mine, an RL02 drive is the third unit of the rack containing the CPU cabinet, and the TU80 tape drive is too tall for that slot (though one of the later front-loaders would probably fit). If you don't need an RL02 drive, then i think the hole it would leave behind is just the right size for an expansion chassis. Hmm, if it's the same rack that originally had the RL02 in it, then there should be no top panel, as the top-mounted RL02 was meant to be opened without sliding it out. With an expansion chassis in its place, you should be able to get full top access to the expansion chassis without sliding anything in or out. That seems like it would be super awesome since you want easy access for swapping cards. And no need to run a BC11A cable between racks, either.

I've played with the idea of making a top cover for my main rack that rests on the cabinet sides, straddling the RL02. If I unscrew the shipping bracket at the back of the RL02 then I could slide it out for pack changes, and leave other stuff like a terminal sitting on top. I usually seem to have stuff sitting on top of the RL02 and/or TU80 anyway, and then I need to shuffle the stuff around whenever I need to open one or the other.

Ok, that's enough enthusiastic agreement for now. Off to the other thread for some more enthusiastic disagreement! :)

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/