Microvax II 'primer'?

[Douglas Taylor]

On 1/23/2018 7:58 PM, Jules Richardson via cctech wrote:
> On 01/22/2018 02:05 PM, allison via cctech wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 1/22/18 2:18 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctech wrote:
>>> I can't believe you 'just carry it into the house' all by yourself,
>>> unless you are professional athlete.
>>> I also have a MicroVax II in the BA123 world box and it has wheels 
>>> for a
>>> reason!  The damn thing weighs 130 lbs!
>>> I took it to the VCF East last year, never do that again.  Too heavy.
>>>
>> Huge difference between BA23 and ba123 as the BA123 is about twice 
>> the size
>> and internal board space.
>
> Mine's the BA123, the bigger one. It's heavy! I lifted it out of the 
> van myself and put it onto one of the kids' old sleds so that I could 
> drag it through the snow to the door it needed to go through, then 
> picked it up again and took it up the few steps that were necessary. 
> Did I mention that it was heavy?
It won't get stolen.  At VCF there were some young folks who helped me, 
thanks to them!
>
> I did take the side panels off, which helped a lot - I could lift it 
> (just) then with one hand around the top edge and the other on the 
> metal bar at the bottom by the power inlet. I certainly wouldn't want 
> to carry one far.
>
>>> Yes, remove the NiCad battery.
>>>
>> Its easily replaced.
>
> Does leaving it out entirely cause any issues (at least during a 
> testing phase)?
I was able to start and run the machine w/o the battery.  Had to enter 
the date/time each startup.  Not sure what else was remembered by the 
battery backup.
>
> If it's actually holding a charge at present (I seriously doubt it, 
> but it doesn't appear to have leaked) is there any benefit to leaving 
> it in initially - i.e. is it responsible for retaining any settings 
> (e.g. disk parameters) that it would be useful for me to write down - 
> assuming the system proves to be operational - before replacing it?
>
>> RD53s had a problem with the head sticking against the stops.  I repair
>> them, yes I open them
>> unstick it then remove the offending the rubber parts.
>
> That's useful to know - I'm certainly not against doing that myself if 
> it proves necessary (assuming that's the drive I have)
I saved the RD53's, maybe they can be revived.
>
> cheers
>
> Jules
>