Re: Alphastation 200 login (Wayne S)

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 11:25 AM Wayne S via cctech
 wrote:
>
> I should have specifically  said it’s Windows Nt.  Issue is that it’s an 
> Alpha so can’t use the usual  software to change or remove the password 
> unless there’s an Alpha version. Best suggestion so far is to use a version 
> of Unix that runs on Alpha and rename the SAM file.

Or maybe try attaching the boot drive to an x86 system and try using
the usual Windows NT password reset tools? (e.g. chntpw Live CD) I
have no idea if all of the file systems and data file formats are
identical enough between x86 and Alpha versions of Windows NT.

Would probably be a good idea to make a backup image of the boot drive
before using any tools to modify its contents.

Re: Alphastation 200 login (Wayne S)

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 10:45 AM Craig Ruff via cctech
 wrote:
>
> > On May 18, 2022, at 11:00, cctech-requ...@classiccmp.org wrote:
> >
> > Got my Alphastation to boot but i can?t logon because i don?t the 
> > administrator password? Any ideas on how to get past that?
>
> For VMS, if I recall correctly, you set the boot R5 register to 1. Then 
> obviously the reset of the administrator user password is also OS dependent.

Here's one example description of how to do that with OpenVMS.
https://web.archive.org/web/20151122033453/http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/204

Re: idea for a universal disk interface

[Glen Slick via cctech]

I also have multiple ESDI controllers, more than one these flavors:

Dilog DQ686
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dilog/2120-0137-1_DQ686_Nov89.pdf

Emulex QD21
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/emulex/QD2151002-J_QD21_Jun90.pdf

Sigma SCD-RQD11-EC (There seems to be multiple versions from different
vendors of this same basic board).
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/sigmaInformationSystems/400740-B_SDC-RQD11-EC_Disk_Ctrl_Man_Jul88.pdf

They all support block mode DMA transfers, and command queuing with
seek optimization. The Dilog DQ686 and Emulex QD21 are dual wide
boards. The Sigma SCD-RQD11-EC is a quad wide board and has 1MB of
cache memory (which takes up about a quarter of the board area). The
examples I have might only be populated with 512KB of cache memory.

I might have had close to a dozen working full height 5.25-inch ESDI
drives at one point. Unfortunately most of them have failed while
sitting idle over the last few years. Without checking now I don't
know if any of them still work. So the dozen or so Q-Bus ESDI
controllers don't have any use for me now. (Fortunately I also have
more Q-Bus SCSI controllers than backplanes to put them in).

I also have a single Andromeda ESDC ESDI controller. Never found a
manual for that one. Did eventually figure out how to get into the
on-board configuration utility.



On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 8:56 AM Douglas Taylor via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Once upon a time I used an Emulex QD21, but I sold it because the actual
> ESDI disks I had were a pain in the butt.  Always crashing.
> I still have a Webster (quad board) SRQD something.
> I think I had a Dilog board also.  It's been a while, probably 20 years.
> Doug
>
> On 4/18/2022 9:12 PM, Chris Zach via cctech wrote:
> > Interesting, what kind of ESDI controllers do you have? They got
> > advanced features like cache, ordered seeks, and burst mode/block mode
> > DMA?

Re: XXDP diagnostic sources

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2021, 8:02 AM Robert Armstrong via cctech <
cctech@classiccmp.org> wrote:

>   Hopefully this is an easy question - are the sources for the XXDP
> diagnostics online anywhere?  I particularly looking for NKXA, the
> Falcon-11/KXT11/DCT11 one.


Source code listing scans are available for some of the XXDP diagnostics.
Don't know if original machine readable source code is available anywhere.

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/xxdp/fiche_200dpi/0176_CNKXAA0_KXT-11.pdf

Re: Disabling SCSI parity checking to dump disk on ACB4000 MFM-SCSI adapter?

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 11:51 AM Michael Engel via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> still working on backing up the Tektronix 440x disks. My current problem
> is that the ACB4000 SCSI-to-MFM adapter doesn´t support SCSI parity.
>
> I finally managed to find a PCI SCSI controller (Adaptec 2940) and a
> Pentium 4 PC with PCI slots and installed OpenBSD 6.7. I disabled parity
> checking in the Adaptec BIOS config and it detects a disk at ID 0 with
> no name. So far, so good.
>

If the Adaptec 2940 BIOS seems to detect the disk I wonder what would
happen if DOS was set up on the system and ASPI8DOS.SYS was loaded.
Would the Adaptec 2940 and ASPI driver respect the BIOS parity setting
and interact with the ACB4000 bridge well enough for a fairly simple
DOS program to be able to use the ASPI interface to send READ CDBs to
read the sectors from the device? If I had such a device myself to
experiment with I'd probably give that a try to see if it works.

Re: HP 1670E logic analyzer QUESTION ??

[Glen Slick via cctech]

I forgot that at some point they switched from 3.5-inch drives to
2.5-inch drives.

I just pulled the cover off my 1670E to check exactly what it has for
a hard drive. It is an IBM Travelstar model DBCA-203240, 3.2GB,
4200RPM, 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drive with ATA/IDE Interface, with a date
code of March 1999.

That is the original hard drive, it has an HP sticker with a raw HD
part number of 0950-3641, which matches the part number in the Agilent
Technologies 1670G-Series Logic Analyzers Service Guide, 01670-97015.
I can't find a service guide specific to the 1670E at the moment.

I don't have an HP 1660E/ES/EP-Series Logic Analyzer to check. Those
are also color LCD display models, and I believe they also use
2.5-inch drives.

The older HP 1660C/CS/CP-Series, 1670A-Series, and 1670D-Series with
mono CRT displays use 3.5-inch drives.

On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 8:51 AM Glen Slick  wrote:
>
> The  HP 16500 / 1660  / 1670 series which have hard drives use standard IDE 
> drives.
>
> They might be slightly picky about which drives work. Any drive larger than 
> around 2GB might have some issues.
>
> Why do you ask?
>
> On Sun, Jan 5, 2020, 6:42 AM GerardCJAT via cctech  
> wrote:
>>
>> This equipment is said to have an internal 2 Go HD.
>>
>> Who knows what KIND of HD  ??  HP SCSI  ??
>>
>> Thanks
>>

Re: HP 1670E logic analyzer QUESTION ??

[Glen Slick via cctech]

The  HP 16500 / 1660  / 1670 series which have hard drives use standard IDE
drives.

They might be slightly picky about which drives work. Any drive larger than
around 2GB might have some issues.

Why do you ask?

On Sun, Jan 5, 2020, 6:42 AM GerardCJAT via cctech 
wrote:

> This equipment is said to have an internal 2 Go HD.
>
> Who knows what KIND of HD  ??  HP SCSI  ??
>
> Thanks
>
>

Re: VAX & PDP-11 Stuff To Clean Out

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2019 at 6:36 PM Jules Richardson via cctech
 wrote:
>
> On 11/6/19 12:16 PM, David Coolbear via cctech wrote:
> > M5976-AA KZQSA SCSI Controller Q
>
> Hmm, I could sure use one of those...
>
> I bought a bunch of QBus boards from my recycler quite some time ago, but
> the systems that they'd been pulled from were run with SMD drives. Finding
> a working SMD drive is something of a challenge, but SCSI at least opens up
> possibilities of emulated storage (or real spinning rust, I may still have
> a suitable drive or two, albeit currently on the other side of the Atlantic)

An M5976 KZQSA is not an MSCP compatible controller. If I remember
correctly an M7626 KA660 VAX 4000-200 or better CPU is necessary to
boot from it, and the only OS that supports it is VMS, and only SCSI
CD-ROM drives are officially supported.

I have never tried to boot VMS from a SCSI hard drive attached to an
M5976 KZQSA, or tried to access a SCSI hard drive attached to an M5976
KZQSA after booting VMS from a different drive. I have only used them
for installing VMS from a CD-ROM on a VAX 4000, or for installing
layered products from a CD-ROM on any Q-Bus VAX after VMS is already
installed. For that limited purpose they work well.

Re: Pertec Interface Cable Length

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 7:44 PM Chuck Guzis via cctech
 wrote:
>
> On 8/11/19 6:00 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctech wrote:
>
> > I just looked at the TC02 and the Qualstar, there are termination
> > resistor packs on each.  The Qualstar has a bunch of 74LS240 IC's near
> > the J1 and J2 pertec interface cables.  The TC02 has a bunch of 74LS374
> > chips near the J1 and J2 connectors.
> >
> > This is where the electrical engineer could help.  How do you determine
> > how long a cable the 74LS240 can drive?
>
> TC02?  The DECtape controller?
>

I assume TC02 here refers to an Emulex TC02, a Q-Bus Pertec interface
tape controller which emulates a TS11 tape controller.

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/emulex/TC0251002-G_TC02tech_Jul85.pdf

Re: Pertec Interface Cable Length

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 9:46 AM Douglas Taylor via cctech
 wrote:
>
> I bought the long cables off ebay, so they have to be good? Right? I
> think the short cables came from a hamfest.
>
> The cables can be fairly long, I remember interfacing a TU80 to an
> Emulex QT14 (maybe) and the DEC cables were round and about 15 feet
> long.  And it worked.
>
> It was too late last night to begin checking the long cables for
> continuity, so I fired off the email instead thinking it may be a
> termination problem.
>
> Is it possible for the IDC and Card edge connectors to be put on wrong?
> You would want pin 1 to map to pin 1, and so on.
>
> Doug

If you build cables yourself without proper tools it might be easy to
end up with bad results. It takes a fair amount of force to properly
press a 50-pin connector on to a ribbon cable with even pressure.

I picked up a used 3M Scotchflex 3316 manual hand press with locator
plates for IDC and card edge connectors a few years back for a
reasonable price. It made quick work of properly pressing 50-pin IDC
connectors on to ribbon cables when I built some Pertec interface tape
drive cables. I used some Amphenol Spectra-Strip Twist 'N' Flat ribbon
cable and made a couple of cables that are about 8 feet long. I
haven't had any problems using them between an Emulex QT13 controller
and a Fujitsu M2444AC tape drive.

Re: DEC MS630/M7609 Question

[Glen Slick via cctech]

M7608 == 4MB
M7609 == 8MB

AFAIK the only DEC 16MB Q-bus board is the MS650 M7622 for the KA640,
KA650, KA655, KA660

On Tue, Jul 9, 2019, 2:36 PM W2HX via cctech  wrote:

> Hi there.
>
>
> I just acquired a board with the number M7609. It was advertised as an
> M630-CA which my research tells me is supposed to be 16MB. How do I tell on
> the board if this is 8MB or 16MB? There does not seem to be a suffix on the
> board that I can see.
>
>
> What to look for?
>
> 73 Eugene W2HX
>
>
>

Re: Abandoned FACOM system in Italy?

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Mon, May 27, 2019 at 4:14 PM shad via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Hello,
> do you know the people who made the video?
> I think the factory is the Satilai in Saronno.
>
> Andrea

I believe those guys are based somewhere in the US. Sometime in the
last few months they made a trip exploring several places in Europe.
They usually do not provide in their videos the exact identity or
location of the places they visit, although a lot of their viewers can
figure it out with a bit of research.

http://theproperpeople.com/about/
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheProperPeople/videos

I have seen some interesting old computer gear briefly appear in a few
of their other videos. Not something they stop to focus on, as most of
the people on this list would.

Re: HP 1000 A900 ("Magic") Questions

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 4:14 AM Paul Birkel via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Aficionados;
>
> I'm interested in acquiring an HP1000 A900, in any form-factor.
> (http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=594)
>
> Basic need would be a chassis/backplane/PS and minimal set of
> CPU/memory/HPIB-controller/terminal-IO PCA, however I'd be interested in
> simply acquiring a PCA-set and I'll work the chassis/backplane/PS
> separately.  Even single PCAs would give me a helpful push forwards.
>
> And I need to stick to my hobby (beer") budget.
>
> I'm located in Maryland, USA, and pretty sure that the cost of overseas
> shipping would be ghastly for a chassis.  But maybe not as bad for the tower
> configuration as for the rack-mount.
>
> If I understand correctly, the CPU consists of:
>
> 12201A A900 Sequencer Card
> 12202A A900 Data Path Card
> 12203A A900 Cache Controller
> 12204A A900 Memory Controller
> 12220A 768KB RAM  (Or I presume 12103D 1MB, 12221A 3 MB, or 12221B 8 MB.)
>
> I imagine that I'll need to synthesize my own OTT "frontplane" for the
> memory.
>
> 12009A HP-IB Controller
> 12040D Asynchronous Multiplexer interface board

The hard part is the A900 chassis/backplane/PS.  Jesse / Cypress
Technology has some 2139A 20-slot listed on eBay, but definitely not
at hobby budget prices. No idea how much room he has for "Make Offer".
I have rarely seen the A900 chassis come up for sale on eBay.

Another hard part is the 1 memory frontplane. Maybe it wouldn't be
too hard to build an equivalent PCB if the proper connectors can be
acquired. They are 3-row 96-pin connectors. Maybe common DIN 41612
connectors would work, I haven't looked at that closely.

The core A900 CPU set 12201A / 12202A / 12203A / 12204A appear to be
common enough on eBay if you are willing to pay somewhere in the range
of $50 - $175 per board. $200 for a complete CPU board set might not
be too bad for a hobby budget, but you can easily go 2x or more higher
than that buying the boards individually.

The 12220 768KB and 12221 3MB boards are also common enough, typically
somewhere in the range of $50 - $175 per board. The 12221 8MB boards
seem somewhat rare. The A400/A600/A700 12103 memory boards are not
compatible with the A900.

At a minimum you need either a 12005 serial card or a 12040 serial mux
for a console interface. Both of those are fairly common, although you
might pay more for cables than the boards if you don't build cables
yourself. There are several firmware versions for the 12040 mux. If
you have a D mux you need need VCP firmware 4020 or higher on the
12203A cache controller.

As you also said you need a 12009 HPIB card for a storage interface.
Running HPDrive on a PC to emulate disk and tape drives works well if
you don't have any real HPIB disk and tape drives. I managed to pick
up a 12016 SCSI card. Those are rare and expensive.

The best deal would often be on a complete chassis/backplane/PS box
with the complete CPU card set, if you can ever find one, rather than
buying individual parts here and there. I got a complete A900 box and
boards from Sellam for somewhere around $200, but that was a few years
ago now. I should get rid of a lot of the stuff I have collected over
the years, but don't plan on getting rid of the A900 anytime soon.

If you do get a working A-series up and running, the RTE-A
installation tapes are available on Bitsavers.

Re: Looking for 12016-60002 HP Single Ended Cable

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 9:01 AM Jesse Dougherty via cctech
 wrote:
>
> 12016-60002 - SE Cable - card edge connector to 50-pin low density bail
> lock (M) - 2m (6.6ft) long
>
> If anyone has any of these, let me know, I can use about 4 of them.
>
> Thanks
> Jesse
> Cypress Technology Inc
>

Good luck with that. Finding a 12016-60002 SCSI cable seems to be more
difficult than finding a 12016A SCSI controller, which is difficult
and expensive itself.

The cables for the 12076A Ethernet controllers seems to be the same
story. For example currently I see a few 12076A Ethernet controllers
on eBay but no one ever lists the cables.

The cables must have all gotten separated from the boards long ago.
Common problem with all types of electronic gear.

If you do manage to find a source of more cables than you need, post
to the list that some are available.

-Glen

Re: 11/70 - original or 570 model more desirable?

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 7:49 PM Bill Degnan via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Random question
> would you prefer having, if you had to pick only one, the original PDP
> 11/70 or the newer "blue cabinets" PDP 11/70, assuming both were complete
> configurations with racks of storage etc as they would have been sold, more
> or less.

Random question:
Would you have bought this one if it were maroon instead of blue?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-PDP-11-70-Datasystem-570-/113553953503?nordt=true_cvip=true

Re: OT Parts houses & scrappers

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 9:48 AM Jay West via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Kudos to Jesse for working with me offlist, I feel I've gotten a good deal. I 
> appreciate the offers to help purchase, very much, but I got this taken care 
> of directly with Jesse and I'm happy.
>
> We have to understand, as others pointed out, that if no one speaks up for 
> stuff at a price that can keep the parts houses in business then the parts 
> won't be around. By the same token, the parts houses have to know we can't 
> pay typical full price that corporations/military can. We must be willing to 
> pay something above scrap value, of course.
>
> I ask folks to keep an open mind and give Jesse a fair shake moving forward.

Also, the dealers in this gear disappear over time if they can't stay
in business. I bought some HP cables from 360 Technologies
(360tech.com) last year and now they are gone. Anyone know what
happened to whatever was left of their stock? Is Monterey Bay
Communications (www.montbay.com) still in business or have they been
gone for a while? I think I sent them an email inquiry a few months
back and never got a response. Any other dealers with HP 1000 gear
that are still in business?

Re: Removing PVA from a CRT

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 10:41 AM Alan Perry via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Also, I have never worked on a CRT before. I am trying to find a local person 
> who can observe me and stop me from doing something stupid. If I can’t find 
> someone, what am I more likely to do wrong? How can I be sure I discharged it 
> before touching it?
>

I have around a dozen or so HP 264x terminals with various states of
CRT decay. Most have developed bubbles in the face of the CRT. Some
are bad enough that the CRT has started leaking goo from the face.

I have no experience doing any cleanup work on these CRT issues. We
should have a CRT restoring party. Anyone else in the Seattle area
have "moldy" CRTs that need some attention, and/or have experience
doing the work?

Re: VAX Lisp, Macsyma, Maxima

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 4:07 PM David Coolbear via cctech
 wrote:
>
> Does anyone know if any of these are still available for OpenVMS VAX?

917AA VAX LISP/VMS [LISP030] or [LISP031] was on VMS Consolidated
Software Distribution CD sets from at least Jan-1990 to May-1993

I have [LISP031] that I must have gotten from a CD set that was
released in that time frame.

Re: DEC BA213 and BA213 S-boxes?

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 9:04 AM, Bill Degnan via cctech
 wrote:
>
> FYI  - Not sure if I mentioned this but I too am working on setting up a
> DECServer 550 to be an 11/83.  Useful tips recently, thanks all.
> b

Using an M7554 KDJ11-D DECserver 550 CPU (in which case it would be an
11/53), or with an M8190 KDJ11-B CPU?

Using an M7554 KDJ11-D DECserver 550 CPU is nice in that you get 1.5MB
of RAM on board and the two MMJ async ports on the S-handle bracket,
but of course it is slower than an M8190 KDJ11-B CPU because it has no
cache, no support for adding an FPJ11 FPA, and no support for PMI
memory.

With an M8190 KDJ11-B CPU you would have to hack up some sort of
bracket for the console async port, and for the diagnostic LED display
if you wanted that too. If DEC ever made an S-handle console panel for
the M8190 KDJ11-B CPU I have never seen one.

Re: VAX Q-bus identical to PDP-11 Q-bus?

[Glen Slick via cctech]

An M5976 KZQSA is not MSCP compatible so it wouldn't do any good with a
PDP-11 system. It's really only useful for RRD4x SCSI CD-ROM drives with
VMS on a VAX 4000.

On Dec 6, 2017 9:47 AM, "Aaron Jackson via cctech" 
wrote:

I'm looking after a VAX 4000 for a friend, which has a SCSI Q-bus card
(M5976). If the card did not have the large metal face, would it work in
a Q-bus PDP-11? We are not going to potentially ruin a card by trying
this, but I am interested to know if this is the case.

Thanks,

Aaron.

Re: Vintage HP 1000 Floating point processor ( EBAY )

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 10:48 AM, GerardCJAT via cctech
 wrote:
> Seems it found a new home  !!  ( One bid )
>
> I am curious : From someone on this forum ???
>
> PS : I was NOT interested by this processor  ;-)by now, I have my 1000 
> Lseries to play with, that is enought for now.

I'll raise my hand and admit that after watching that one get relisted
several times I bought it before someone else finally did and then
regretted not buying it while I had the chance. They can't be too easy
to find if you really need one.

I figure I can use it as a spare for my 2117F, or use it with my 2113E
as a 2117F after a firmware swap.

I wonder if the person that bought this somewhat sparsely populated
2117F for $500 realized that it won't be fully functional without the
FPP box?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201998054663?orig_cvip=true

I also have a couple of 1000 A900 boxes. No L-series boxes.

Re: RL02 to image file

[Glen Slick via cctech]

On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 10:28 AM, JCWelch via cctech
 wrote:
> Hello,
> Does anyone have a setup to image RL02 packs to a pc file that can be mounted 
> with simh?  I have a couple of dozen I would like transferred because I am 
> downsizing.  I have a bunch of gear I can trade, also rum and/or dollars.   
> Hopefully you are close to Houston.
>

What do you have for working systems and drives? I did this once a
while back with several RL02 packs using a PDP-11/73 system that I set
up with an RL02 controller and drive. I installed 2.11BSD on the
system and used dd to dump the RL02 packs to disk images, then used
FTP to get the images off the 11/73 system to a PC.

If I was local to your area I'd be willing to give you a hand, but I'm
in the Seattle area.