DEC Computer Lab for sale
Vincent Slyngstad
vincent.slyngstad at gmail.com
Sun May 30 10:42:44 CDT 2021
On 5/30/2021 6:22 AM, Eric Moore wrote:
> Hi, I have a DEC computer lab, but no cables. It works fine, but I would
> love to pair it with an original-as-reasonable set of cables.
>
> Are the mini-banana plugs the best modern replacement available? Are
> pics of the original plugs available?
The mini-banana works OK, and I don't know of anything better that is
still available. A hundred of them (50 patch cables) won't be cheap.
https://so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/computerlab/computerlab.php
The photos get a little bigger if you click them. Those bits of stamped
brass or whatever they are made of were probably pennies each.
Vince
> On Sun, May 30, 2021, 3:08 AM Vincent Slyngstad via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>> wrote:
>
> On 5/29/2021 10:52 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
> >> While the mini-banana makes a passable (though expensive) modern
> >> substitute, I believe the originals were hollow crimp-on taper pins,
> >> #42107 or #42279.
> >
> > Really? I have loads of taper pin patch cables. I should try one out.
> >
> > The sockets just loom too big for taper pins.
>
> I have a few original cables. They look to my untrained eye like
> stranded hook-up wire with a crimp-on pin on each end. The pins look
> like brass, and are about the size of the ones in the DEC current loop
> connectors, except brass and fatter as you move back toward the crimp.
>
> Like proper taper pins, they wedge nicely into the brass annuli on the
> H-500. They also work nicely in the earlier Logic Lab panels that took
> the flip-chip modules. I wish I could find a source for the pins, as
> I'd like to make a pile of patch cables!
>
> Unless your taper pin patch cables fit, and you want to unload a bunch
> of them :-).
>
> Vince
>
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