Trying to get my RLV11 working

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Ben Sinclair

    > A while back I was talking to someone else who suggested using a ribbon
    > cable from the controller to directly inside the drive.

I've heard that suggestion too...

    > That technically will fit if I remove the ribbon inside the drive that
    > goes to the external connectors, but then I won't have a terminator
    > installed. I do have a terminator though!

The cable from the CPU would have to have two connectors on the RL02 end;
one would plug into the drive's logic board, and the other to the outbound
connector, where you can plug in the terminator.

AFAIK that cable is purely a bus (i.e. no radial per-drive wires), so you
should just be able to run it to the second connector, no issue. However,
I'm too lazy to check to make sure that's absolutely 100% accurate. :-)

    > I think what I really need, since I don't have a cab kit or anything,
    > is a bc80m, which I believe is a ribbon with a ground lug on the
    > controller side, and whatever type of connector the drive uses on the
    > other end.

I think you mean a Berg connector which will plug directly into the RLV11,
not "ground lug", right? Yes, if you don't have a cab kit, that's the cable
you need. It's not a ribbon cable, but a round cable (the connectors the
drives use only come in regular cable form, not ribbon cable - AFAIK).

    > Not that I can even find a cable like that anywhere currently...

RLOx cables of _any_ kind are very hard to find. There are discussions under
way about making new ones; there is a supply (used) of the wierd-ass
connector that plugs into the back of the drive which could be used.


    > I unfortunately don't have an extender card... 

Others have pointed you at Douglas; here's the page for all their
extender cards:

  http://www.douglas.com/index.php/off-the-shelf-solutions/bread-boards-by-function/board-extender.html

which includes a hex, but those aren't any use (that I can think of) to
people with QBUS machines.

(Useful things to have it you're trying to maintain a vintage PDP-11; one is,
perforce, forced to become one's own Field Circus person - unless you're lucky
and happen to live close to a PDP-11 hardware expert who's willing to come
salve one's machine.)


    > From: Johnny Billquist

    > Well, not important. We're now beyond that point. The boards are
    > working well enough that we can address them...

Well, but he might still have a problem on them. Although fixing such would
be a challenge...

	Noel