SQ703/6 conversion and a little fun

[Nigel Johnson Ham]

No, Zane, it is made by Dilog. I heard that the device can do both tape
and disk, but that to save money on DEC's royalty payments they only put
the proms in for what you bought - which is not a problem since I got
two of them!

I figure if you can't beat it, go with the flow!  I am going to move the
Plessey DCV54 to 160340 and let the SQ706 play at 172150, even though
its diagnostic says its at 174500! The reason I know it is coming up at
172150 is that the DCV54 diagnostic says there is a non-DCV54 controller
there, only when the SQ703(6) is plugged in.

Unfortunately  there are other jobs I have to do first, including fixing
a very noisy power contactor in a DEC power controller that is upsetting
the wife, and the microvax seems to have a ground  loop voltage that is
preventing me from entering anything on the console channel since I
installed the power converter!

Cheers,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at ieee.org



On 2021-11-01 1:40 p.m., Zane Healy wrote:
> Who made the SQ703/SQ706?  Is this a rebadge Viking board?  If so then it’s the PAL. 
>
> I think that the OED needs to improve their definition of VAX.
>
> Zane
>
>
>
>
>> On Nov 1, 2021, at 4:23 AM, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>>
>> A few months ago, thanks to help from several people here, I converted
>> an SQ703 TMSCP controller to SQ706 MSCP.
>>
>> I had problems trying to use it on the vax due to the complexity of
>> mapping Q-Bus registers under ODT, so put off trying until I got the
>> LSI-11/73 going.
>>
>> Now I have a problem: It seems to run and recognise the controller as
>> SQ706 according to the on-board diagnostics, however it insists saying
>> it is at 777450, the TMSCP address.  Trying to change it gives me an
>> out-of-bounds message.
>>
>> OK, I thought, I will just use it there.
>>
>> Put it in to a running RT11 system and it shows up at 772150 and clashes
>> with an existing controller!
>>
>> It seems that one of the PALs is maybe setting up the address!
>>
>> Anybody else tried this?
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Nigel
>>
>> Here's the fun: 
>> https://www(dot)bbc(dot)com/news/entertainment-arts-59089596
>>
>> Maybe our vax computers will become popular once again!
>>
>> -- 
>> Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
>> Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
>> Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at ieee.org
>>
>>
>>