Fixed my pdt11/150

[Chris Zach]

No I put together an RX02 with an RX01 controller on my bigger computer 
to format a special disk. It can only use RX01 formatted disks, and to 
make a boot disk you need the PD.SYS driver and to copy/boot the PD 
driver to the boot block.

And yes, the switch on the back is broken. How did you guess :-) For 
awhile I used it in the 80's as a mini BBS with MUBasic and a little 
program I ran on top of that. Technically it did... work.. ish.

C

On 4/26/2020 4:42 PM, Zane Healy wrote:
> Somehow I like the term “Boat Anchor” to describe the PDT-11/150.  I’ve had one for well over 20 years.  At a bare minimum, it needs the on/off switched replaced, as it’s broken off.  Is that the disk that came with yours?  I like how it’s all games. :-)
> 
> I can’t remember, are these disks formatted strange?
> 
> Zane
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Apr 26, 2020, at 1:33 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>>
>> So I've had a boat anchor pdt11/150 here for awhile. It's probably one of the weirdest pdp11s ever built: An 11/03 CPU ish, six serial ports, ish, and a pair of RX01 drives.
>>
>> Ish.
>>
>> The trick is the system is very closed in: There are 4 boards inside with a lot of early microprocessors to do the IO instead of a real Q bus. The bottom board is a controller that is sort of like an RX01 but instead of using the DX: driver it uses a special PD: driver. The CPU connects to this with a 14 pin DIP ribbon cable, and on the back of the CPU module is a 64kb memory module and a serial module that has a console, printer, modem and three additional serial ports that are their own thing.
>>
>> Problem with this one was that it would not come up. Serial tests seemed to fail using an error code of waiting for input which didn't make a lot of sense. So today I decided to pull the serial board and see if I could swap the UARTs.
>>
>> I quickly figured out the problem: The serial board "connects" to the main board by two sets of bars with three screws each that hold the board to an interconnecting header that sends the signals. As soon as I loosened the screws I realized that the header isn't connecting to pins on either board, it literally presses against pads on the boards that complete the circuit. Nothing but pressure and springiness holds it together. No screw, pin and socket, anything.
>>
>> With that I cleaned off the headers and wiped down the pads on the boards till they shined like the top of the chrystler building. I then reassembled and torqued the screws down evenly, finishing with the center screw first followed by the outside screws. It is to note that the hinges that hold the CPU and memory/serial boards to the body of this thing attach to the bottom of those screws so when you open it up you are flexing the assembly and probably stretching the screws a bit. Which results in bad contact...
>>
>> Plugged it in and all is well.
>>
>> RT-11SJ (S) V05.01C
>>
>> .DIR SY:
>>
>> SPCINV.SAV    10  21-Mar-1989    OTHELO.SAV    45  21-Mar-1989
>> SPCINV.DAT     1  21-Mar-1989    TODAY .SAV    20  22-Feb-1988
>> DECMAN.SAV    14  21-Mar-1989    SPACWR.SAV    13  21-Mar-1989
>> STRTRK.SAV    54  21-Mar-1989    SWAP  .SYS    26P 27-Jul-1984
>> RT11SJ.SYS    64P 19-Jun-1988    TT    .SYS     2P 19-Jun-1988
>> PD    .SYS     3P 19-Jun-1988    DX    .SYS     4P 21-Jan-2000
>> PIP   .SAV    30P 21-Jan-2000    DUP   .SAV    52P 21-Jan-2000
>> DIR   .SAV    20P 21-Jan-2000
>> 15 Files, 358 Blocks
>> 128 Free blocks
>>
>> Another little DEC mystery solved. One odd thing about these: There are only four chip slots for the CPU and microcode, but one of the carriers has two dies on it so the system *does* have EIS and FIS instructions. Why not...
>>
>> Chris
>>
>