[cctalk] Re: Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there
Sounds like these may the long lost P/OS drivers. Contact Jörg Hoppe at RETROCMP - he's been scanning in a lot of DEC fiche of late. http://retrocmp.com/ -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: May need help buying computer in Houston - I’m in CA
Errr, I'm in Houston. What did you have in mind to get done locally on this deal? == Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.com
[cctalk] Re: Restoring Ultrix-32m 1.2 Floppies
I have had good luck with a secfor convolver from the same page as this comment: http://www.chdickman.com/pdp11/lbn2rx50.cIt will go both ways, to and from physical block order and logical block order. For people working on P/OS or RSX, without a c compiler, here is a utility that can convert from track/sector order to LBN order. https://rsx11.blogspot.com/2018/02/rsx-utility-for-converting-track-sector.html -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@ccomcast.net
[cctalk] Re: Any RSX-11 fans able to identify file types?
Some of the filenames (eg ATOZ013.MSL) suggest that the DEC product A-TO-Z might be involved. This was an RSX based product for small offices. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.ne
[cctalk] Re: Using Flashfloppies on Professional 350 and 380--SOLVED
"Holy smokes. Poking around on these disk images it looks like these system have a FULL DECNET FILE SERVER as well." Are you referring to DECnet FAL on the PRO, or the little known PRO Cluster software? -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: Using Gesswein board with RQDX3
I'm using several of these, on PRO380s, and on RQDX3s on MicroVAXes and a BA23 11/73. Lessee, did you create the container file for the disk? And make sure it's the same file name used in the command line that starts up the service? Did you do the command that tells the service to start at system boot time? And, my favorite problem in setting these up - are the cables plugged in right on both ends of both cables? I had to span the vector space of linear combinations of plug orientations to get it to work, since my cables didn't have keyways, and how to plug 'em in was not obvious. When it works, it works great. Only problem is that I have to pause a bit after powering on the system, to let the automatic file backup finish before the 11/73 tries to access it. If you don't get anywhere, David Gesswein is very helpful sorting out problems. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
Took some pictures of the MicroVAX CTI card, and another odd card I got - an 8086 CTI smartcard. See 'em both at https://rsx11.blogspot.com/2022/09/microvax-and-8086-smartcards-for-dec.html -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: VAXstation 100 ROM image
Reviving a year old thread, did anyone get around to dumping the VAXstation 100 firmware? I gave my VAXstation 100 system unit to Dave McGuire last year (I didn't need it since I lost interest in UNIBUS sized hobby equipment). Perhaps he could make a copy of its ROMs. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
The vendor who sold me the MicroVAX CTI card found the memory daughter card. It 's missing a few memory chips, but otherwise looks in good shape. Can;t wait to get it, add the missing chips and do some testing. Still a long shot to make it do anything, but it's bound to help.
[cctalk] Re: Fixing a TU58 Dectape II: Questions
Yep, RSX11M and M+ support the TU58. Don't recall exactly what versions it first appeared in. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: Fixing a TU58 Dectape II: Questions
3) Can the PDT11 handle anything faster than 2400 baud on the extension >ports? Can it do faster speeds in one direction? I can't guarantee that it can't go faster, but I've done a lot of testing, and haven't been able to get it to work faster than 2400. Faster than that, and I get lots of dropped characters. Still, even at 2400 baud, if you use a TU58 emulator and the large disk DD patch, it can be a convenient way to have a lot of files available on a PDT, without having to switch diskettes. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
[cctalk] Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
OK, got the card. The middle sized chip on the upper edge turns out not to be an 80186 or any other processor. It's an Intel C8207 dual port dynamic ram controller. The EPROM is an Intel D2764. It has "TEST ROM" written on it in pencil. It was a bit of a disappointment - first 256 bytes contain bytes 1 to FF, then a 0, then 16 more 0's, then 4096 FF's, then 0's until the end of the EPROM. No code to be found in therelooks like it was just something for the card to test reading. Next I'll load it into a PRO 380 and see if it can be read/written. I'm not actually too optimistic it will do anything without the missing daughtercard. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcat.net
[cctalk] Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
Message: 6 Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2022 19:32:47 -0500 From: Chris Zach Subject: Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card To: cctalk@classiccmp.org Message-ID: <448ec9e0-a5df-7dd2-65f4-6294e6ebe...@alembic.crystel.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Well, auction is over, I didn't bid on it, and I hope someone here got it. That said, the more I look at it, and the more I look at a true MVII card the more I wonder just what was missing on this card. A true MVII has a pair of rather large custom ASICs in the center of the board and I can't believe the 80186 (or whatever that chip is on the top center of the board) could emulate it all. So it would be interesting to see what this thing was and what it did. I bought it. I know it's long odds that I can get it to do anything, especially without that daughter card, but, waddahell, it's an interesting DEC PRO collectible. I reckon I'll plug it into a PRO and see if it responds to attempted accesses. If the ROM contains PDP11 or VAX code, I'll disassemble it and see if there are any clues there. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
Re: anyone ever connect a TU58 drive to a PDT-11/150 terminal port?
Lessee...I know more about life on Mars than I do RT11, but I know from trying it myself, while building some XXDP volumes, that a simple DIR command can't read an XXDP volume. Maybe there's an equivalent of FLX (RSX) or Exchange (VMS) on RT11? Either way, you can test your ability to read an XXDP TU58 on the PDT by doing a DUMP/TERMINAL DD0: - if it reads, it will dump the blocks out to your screen. It will be interesting to see if a real TU58 works as well on a PDT as an emulator does. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net On 5/18/2022 3:47 AM, Chris Zach wrote: Very nice to know! I am repairing my tu58 bit by bit and will try it out on my 11/150. Good to know about the serial limit, I'll jumper for 2400 baud to test. Question. The only tape I have for testing is an xxdp. Are they in rt11 format that I can test with a simple directory command? Chris On May 17, 2022 11:31:55 PM GMT+02:00, Lee Gleason via cctalk wrote: On 4/15/2022 2:48 PM, Lee Gleason wrote: I've been tinkering with a PDT-11/150 lately. It's a little inconvenient to work on, since it doesn't have a simple way to transfer files back and forth (KRTMIN doesn't work when transferring files to the box, just from the box, for some reason I haven't been able to puzzle out, and pasting text into a KED screen or a PIP command usually overflows my terminal emulator). It occurred to me that the first application terminal line on the 150 is at 176500,300, the same as the default for a TU58's DL11. It's a very DL11 like interface, register wise. I'm wondering, if I could hook up a TU58 emulator and use it to move data back and forth to the 150. Has anyone had occasion to try this? Any advice on how to get it to go would be appreciated, since I know very little about RT11. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net OK, replying to my own post here, on the off chance that there are any other PDT-11 hobbyists out there. I gave this a try and it works pretty well. The DD driver on the PDT-11/150 will talk to a TU58 emulator on Terminal 1 just fine (presumably, it would talk to a real TU58 as well). It only works at 2400 baud, but, it's still pretty useful for moving software on and off the box. With the "big" TU58 patch to the DD driver, it's also possible to store lots of RT11 software or data (65000 or so blocks worth) on a virtual TU58 and load from there, rather than switching floppies. Seehttps://rsx11.blogspot.com/2022/05/pdt-11150-and-tu58.html for the long boring story about figuring this out. == Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
Re: anyone ever connect a TU58 drive to a PDT-11/150 terminal port?
On 4/15/2022 2:48 PM, Lee Gleason wrote: I've been tinkering with a PDT-11/150 lately. It's a little inconvenient to work on, since it doesn't have a simple way to transfer files back and forth (KRTMIN doesn't work when transferring files to the box, just from the box, for some reason I haven't been able to puzzle out, and pasting text into a KED screen or a PIP command usually overflows my terminal emulator). It occurred to me that the first application terminal line on the 150 is at 176500,300, the same as the default for a TU58's DL11. It's a very DL11 like interface, register wise. I'm wondering, if I could hook up a TU58 emulator and use it to move data back and forth to the 150. Has anyone had occasion to try this? Any advice on how to get it to go would be appreciated, since I know very little about RT11. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net OK, replying to my own post here, on the off chance that there are any other PDT-11 hobbyists out there. I gave this a try and it works pretty well. The DD driver on the PDT-11/150 will talk to a TU58 emulator on Terminal 1 just fine (presumably, it would talk to a real TU58 as well). It only works at 2400 baud, but, it's still pretty useful for moving software on and off the box. With the "big" TU58 patch to the DD driver, it's also possible to store lots of RT11 software or data (65000 or so blocks worth) on a virtual TU58 and load from there, rather than switching floppies. See https://rsx11.blogspot.com/2022/05/pdt-11150-and-tu58.html for the long boring story about figuring this out. == Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
DX/IAS software
I have a tape from the late 70s that contains DX/IAS, a package from DEC that allowed terminal emulation and file transfer to/from WPS on DECmates to IAS systems. Not too many IAS systems out there these days, but the tape includes sources, so it should be easily adaptable to RSX systems, as well as giving some insight in general to the DX communications protocol. Anyone have a tape drive still running that could take a stab at reading this tape? It's not marked as to density, but it looks like one of those small 800 BPI tapes DEC used to deliver small packages on around that time. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
anyone ever connect a TU58 drive to a PDT-11/150 terminal port?
I've been tinkering with a PDT-11/150 lately. It's a little inconvenient to work on, since it doesn't have a simple way to transfer files back and forth (KRTMIN doesn't work when transferring files to the box, just from the box, for some reason I haven't been able to puzzle out, and pasting text into a KED screen or a PIP command usually overflows my terminal emulator). It occurred to me that the first application terminal line on the 150 is at 176500,300, the same as the default for a TU58's DL11. It's a very DL11 like interface, register wise. I'm wondering, if I could hook up a TU58 emulator and use it to move data back and forth to the 150. Has anyone had occasion to try this? Any advice on how to get it to go would be appreciated, since I know very little about RT11. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
PDT-11 Virtual Terminal Monitor v1.07
and tried looping back pin 2 to pin 3 on each serial + modem port and typing some characters, but nothing shows up in vterm. PDT-11/150 terminal and printer ports ports all require a high on pin 20, DTR, before they can send characters. I've never used the modem port on my PDT's but I suspect it requires the typical, pins 6, 8, and 20 wired together. Maybe you need to pull some of these pins high to loop around? -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
What's left of the Houston Museum stuff
"Nice selection of dirty and yellowed computers in unknown condition." I just took a run out to the warehouse in question, figuring the owner would be there today cleaning up. The quote above sums up the state of things. There were some miscellaneous DEC terminals, a few MicroVAXes, and some other assorted DEC stuff - but it was all a trifle ...funky. That alone might not have been a sales stopper for me (all of my collection is not pristine), but the prices were a bit higher than I was prepared to pay for that condition and these circumstances. EG $125.00 for a VT220 w/o keyboard, and $90.00 for VT240 base units. I left empty handed. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
DECNet for Pro 300 series boxes
DECnet for Pro350/380 was donated to DECUS, available as DECUS package PRO175. A quick Goog found the floppy disk images for it at http://www.os2site.com/sw/DEC/pro/pro175/index.html. If that site doesn't work out, or you don't like them in LHARC format, let me know - I have them as normal dsk files. DECnet on the PRO's was end node only, you could run it DDCMP on an asynch line, or on the rare, elusive, DECNA ethernet card - but not both at once. -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
Re: RSX11D disks on EBAY- anyone interested?
Well, I managed to scrape together some more bucks and get this RSX11D labeled disk. Although James Fehlinger's recent release of a working RSX11D distro reduces the need for it, I'd still like to see what's on this disk. Does anyone have an actual, physical, assembled, currently working RK05 drive that could read it in for me? -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net On 3/8/2021 11:42 AM, Lee Gleason wrote: On 3/3/21 11:11 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: >>/On 3/3/21 10:42 AM, Lee Gleason via cctalk wrote: />>//>>>/ The auction starts at more than I have in my computer budget this month />>/I went ahead and bought these, but paypal contributions to my email would be helpful />>/this is way more than I can afford as well. / >He listed a 11D utilities source disk over the weekend, so that is on its way now too. >I asked and he says he doesn't have any more 'red labeled' DEC disk packs. Did you notice this auction? Looks like not all of his RSX11D stuff is red labelled. This one looks like it might hold a running system. https://www.ebay.com/itm/PDP-11-RK05-RSX-11D-64K-DEC-Digital-PDP/353410808160?hash=item5248ecf960:g:IwQAAOSwge9gQ7Zh -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
Re: RSX11D disks on EBAY- anyone interested?
On 3/3/21 11:11 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: /On 3/3/21 10:42 AM, Lee Gleason via cctalk wrote: />//>>/ The auction starts at more than I have in my computer budget this month />/I went ahead and bought these, but paypal contributions to my email would be helpful />/this is way more than I can afford as well. / Any luck reading these RSX11D disks yet? -- Lee K.Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
Re: RSX11D disks on EBAY- anyone interested?
On 3/3/21 11:11 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: /On 3/3/21 10:42 AM, Lee Gleason via cctalk wrote: />>//>>>/ The auction starts at more than I have in my computer budget this month />>/I went ahead and bought these, but paypal contributions to my email would be helpful />>/this is way more than I can afford as well. / He listed a 11D utilities source disk over the weekend, so that is on its way now too. I asked and he says he doesn't have any more 'red labeled' DEC disk packs. Did you notice this auction? Looks like not all of his RSX11D stuff is red labelled. This one looks like it might hold a running system. https://www.ebay.com/itm/PDP-11-RK05-RSX-11D-64K-DEC-Digital-PDP/353410808160?hash=item5248ecf960:g:IwQAAOSwge9gQ7Zh -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
RSX11D disks on EBAY- anyone interested?
Saw this on EBAY today - three RK05s with what looks like at least part of RSX11D on them. Who knows, it might be a distribution - RSX11D distributions came on 3 RK05s. https://www.ebay.com/itm/PDP-11-RSX-11D-Executive-Programs-Phase-II-3xRK05-DEC-Digital-PDP-1974/353406977959?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D7a0eb90cc60e434aae8c080e337e19f4%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D373481540837%26itm%3D353406977959%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DDEC&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A2a42bf6d-7c4f-11eb-873a-7260bc9e9eed%7Cparentrq%3Af95f330c1770a1b5a55bbf2dfff9e980%7Ciid%3A1 The auction starts at more than I have in my computer budget this month, though - would some other RSX historians like to go in together on this (preferably at least one person with an RK05 drive)? I'd just like the contents of the disks - I don't care about the physical disks, just what's on 'em -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.glea...@comcast.net
