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Nuclear Data Inc. - Anyone hear of them?

C

Crawford

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
275
Location
Maryland
Folks,

(second time i've tried to post this)

Has anyone heard of Nuclear Data Inc.? The reason I ask is...

I have a 12-bit PC board with toggles and blinkenlights. It is obviously for a 12 bit computer as it has octal-grouped keys (in triplets). Manufacturing marks say 'Nuclear Data Inc.'

I think company cloned (or built accessories for) DEC equipment. It would be great to get a PDP-8 clone working with this front panel.

Any info about the company is appreciated, if you know something that Google does not.

Thanks,
C
 
I've heard of them but don't know much about them. I *think* I have some analog equipment labelled nuclear data. An guy I used to work with have a Nuclear Data terminal.

I would like to know more. Perhaps you could show us a pic?
 
I worked for Nuclear Data for about 13 years, ending in 1986. They sold what little was left of the company to an outfit called
Canberra a couple of years later. They were located in Schaumburg, IL. They manufactured equipment to measure radioactivity, used in research labs, nuclear power plants, etc. At one time also had some Gamma Camera (medical) equipment, and sold that product line to GE. Most of their equipment used a DEC computer on a pc card that plugged into a card cage they manufactured. They did make some analog-to-digital converters used as an input to the system. They used radiation detectors manufactured by PGT from New Jersey. Anything else I can tell you, let me know.
 
Jim,

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any old pictures or documentation from Nuclear Data? I have the front panel (PDP-8 looking) and would love to see what it really went to. I ocassionally see Nuclear Data stuff for later DEC stuff (looks like PDP-11).
 
I can't think of any pictures or documentation I still have. I'll look around.
Yes, they used a lot of PDP-11's in the ND600 and ND6600 series systems. It all had the PDP-11 plugged into an ND card cage.
 
If you still have this front panel, are you willing to sell it? I've got a Nuclear Data machine that needs some broken parts on the front panel replaced.
 
Crawford said:
...I have a 12-bit PC board with toggles and blinkenlights. It is obviously for a 12 bit computer as it has octal-grouped keys (in triplets). Manufacturing marks say 'Nuclear Data Inc.'...
Click to expand...

Could you post a good photo please?

I'd like to see it.
 
I'll dig it out and take a photograph

I'll dig it out and take a photograph

Hi,

Yes, I'll need to dig for it and take a picture. I never found much substantial info on Nuclear Data. I may have some other bits in the box. I'll let you know.

-Crawford
 
Thank you for posting the photos, and for the links to documentation.

I was completely unaware of this manufacturer, and this machine.
 
Ah... it appears you have a front panel to the successor machine, the BR 2412. I've been told that Nuclear Data was bought by Bunker Ramo and that the successor to the ND 812 was the BR 2412. However, the front panel appears to be unchanged from the ND 812. I know someone who has the BR 2412 but they haven't done much with it yet.

Would you be interested in selling me your front panel? As you saw from my photos, mine has some busted switches. This probably comes from it being stored and moved around for 30 years at the surplus dealer where I got it.
 
When I worked on Univac 1108 and SCC 4700 at IIT in earlys 70's my boss said he worked for them and talked about their "AutoFinger". It clamped onto the keyboard of a Teletype and had ten fingers positioned over the numeric row. It took analog inputs from lab equipment and converted it into keystrokes.

I thought about it because I have an RV with a generator start button way in the back. While driving the dash AC sometimes can't keep up so I need to run the 120VAC roof air. That means stopping the RV to go back to the generator controls. The only remote costs north of $900 which I might grudgingly pay except it includes automatic start on high cabin temp or low battery (and sometimes for no reason at all and don't ever stop after 90 minutes and run the fuel tank dry, even on very expensive models). So I want something like an autofinger to remotely push the generator buttons. LOL.

RSP
 
I have a Nuclear Data PDP-11 Qbus system that I picked up for $20 last year. It may be one of the more hideous looking systems I own. Unfortunately the front of the CPU tower only has a power, reset and run and halt switch with a couple lights to display power and run status. The CPU tower is attached to a base unit that contains a five and a quarter floppy and a slot for a MFM hard drive with the space adjacent to the CPU tower being used to support an attached thirteen inch monochrome monitor. The back of the system has connectors for a modern style keyboard and mouse along with four DB-25 serial ports. Inside the CPU tower is what appears to be a standard four slot wide backplane (ABCD) with real Dec 8186 (KDF-11) CPU, two 8044 (MSV-11) memory cards and a couple huge full width cards with one appearing to be the combined controller for the floppy and MFM hard drive and the other being the four port serial and local terminal card. Have not done anything with that system yet but assume there must be some sort of bootstrap in there somewhere. Have given some thought to pulling the drive controller and trying to use that in my 11/23 but not cretin what if anything that would get me.
If the thing did take up so much space and was not so ugly would have put it in the shop some time ago but these days floor space is more valuable then several pending projects. Why is it that regardless how much space you have it always fills up?
shacksep.jpg
 
Qbus said:
... Why is it that regardless how much space you have it always fills up?
View attachment 8356
Click to expand...

He he he...

I think you're do'in great there buddy...

Looking a lot like Kevin Flynn's workshop... you sure you don't have a SHIVA Laser Dis-integrator/Integrator there somewhere??

elc_tron_2010_020.jpgelc_tron_2010_019.jpg
 
I am looking for information about Thomas Mitchell, who I believe founded Nuclear Data in Illinois after WWII. Is that name familiar to you? I believe he was a nuclear physicist. I would appreciate any information you may have.
 
Hi Jim
Could you tell me anything more about Tom Mitchell? What did he do before he started Nuclear Data? In 1972 he sold 300 acres he owned in Sanibel, Florida. Do you know anything about that? We believe that he and his wife Frances lived on Sanibel for a while. Also that he grew up on a farm in Illinois and received his doctorate in nuclear physics from the University of Illinois.
Thank you. Margaret Nelson
 
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