• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

I am now the owner of a VAXStation

C

commodorejohn

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
3,311
Location
California, USA
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121024417860

VAXStation 4000/60, to be precise. It either has 32MB or 104MB RAM (it looks like the latter, from what I read, but we'll see,) but no hard drive. From what I read, it can take two half-height SCSI hard drives, but there's a limitation of 1.08GB on the boot volume. I'm not clear, however, on whether that's a limit on the boot partition, or the actual physical drive size...in any case, I have an IBM 0662 SCSI disk that I hope should work...

I gather I can hook up the video to a VGA monitor with a 3W3-to-BNC cable and a BNC-to-VGA cable, but does anybody know where I can get a keyboard and mouse for this thing?

Now I just need to get meself a VMS license...can anybody advise me on what the best version would be for this machine?
 
Most people would probably stick with the final 7.3 version.

I don't see any inexpensive LK201 keyboards listed on eBay right now. Last time I picked up a couple it was cheap at the local RE-PC in Seattle. I probably should have grabbed all that they had at the time. I wonder if they have any there now.

-Glen
 
commodorejohn said:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121024417860
but there's a limitation of 1.08GB on the boot volume. I'm not clear, however, on whether that's a limit on the boot partition, or the actual physical drive size.
Click to expand...

I think that's just the VAXStation 3100 that has that limitation but, I'm not 100% on that. The 4000/60 came much later. My 4000/60 is working happily on a 4gb drive. The 3100 deal had to do with the boot rom. It required the pagefile be located entirely in the first 1gb of the drive for the boot rom to access it. VMS can't guarantee that. It usually put's it at the end of the disk I think. Also, if there is a crash and dump the dump file may overwrite the filesystem. It's all fuzzy now but, it was something like that. That said it seems it depends on drives. I had a 2gb drive that worked perfectly on a 3100 for whatever reason. Probably number of cylinders or such.

If you put the S3 switch in the up position you can run it out the serial port. You'll need a mmj cable to whatever you want to use it with. Probably a better way to run it anyway. The keyboard, mouse, and video cable may set you back a bit. They have become a little hard to find over the years.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I'm not sure what's going to happen with the whole keyboard/video/mouse deal. Serial port would work for command-line stuff, but is it possible to have DECWindows run a display out over the serial port to an (emulated) X terminal?
 
I did drive down to RE-PC in Tukwila today and I was somewhat surprised that they still had some LK201 keyboards there. It had been a few months since I had been there last. They had 5 left. One had a stuck key. The other 4 didn't look too bad other than being dirty so I bought those 4. I'll have to give them a quick try on my VT220 and see if they all work ok and if they can be cleaned up a bit without too much work. If they all work I don't need all 4 of them and could let one go with my costs covered.

Too bad they didn't also have any VSXXX-AA mice there. Those take a bit more work to find.
 
Congrats! Looks like that machine can provide a ton of fun!

I would definitely try to run some Ultrix or OSF/Unix on it. And yeah, a workstation screams "i want a keyboard and a mouse", and if you have a mouse you have to pair it with a GUI, therefore a VGA cable converter is probably in order.
 
Is an LK201 keyboard compatible with this model of VAXStation? I believe the LK401 was standard, but they both have the same connector, at least...
 
commodorejohn said:
I'd gladly take one of those :)

The mouse...yeah. There's one on eBay right now, but it's $75...ugh.
Click to expand...

Yea keyboard is easy since it was on so many terminals. Mouse is the hard part. They obviously didn't use them. I don't think you want a LK201 keyboard anyway. Pretty sure the 4000 came with lk401. 201 will work but, they are big and heavy. They just look wrong with a 4000 anyway. This is the setup you are after http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-3100-M76-VAXstation-computer-/121024376550
 
commodorejohn said:
Yeah, but not at that price!
Click to expand...

Haha no. I meant those are the keyboard and mice you are after. Those are the right ones for a later VAXStation. I only linked it as an example for what to look for. Pretty sure the 201 and hockey puck mouse will work too but, it will look really funky. They pretty much need to stay with vt220 or VAXStation 2000.
 
I'm not too concerned about aesthetics, though I would like to avoid the hockey-puck mouse. Any idea which mice are compatible with my VAXStation? I found this for pretty cheap, but it's got some kind of weird connector. The PCXAS line are all a nice sane mouse shape, but apparently some of them are PS/2 mice or something? It's all pretty confusing...
 
I have a VAXstation 3100 Model 76 and as far as I can tell the LK201 keyboard and VSXXX-AA mouse were the standard parts for that system.

I don't have a VAXstation 4000. I didn't realize that the LK401 keyboard and VSXXX-GA mouse were the standard parts for the newer systems.

In any case, if come up short looking for a reasonably priced LK401 the LK201 keyboards I picked up yesterday seem to work, although they could use some good cleaning. I'd have to check how much it would cost to ship one.
 
mc68010 said:
My 4000/60 is working happily on a 4gb drive.
Click to expand...
Yeah; looking around some FAQs, it seems that the 1GB limit only applied to the 3000 models. It sounds like there might be an 8GB limit, but that's plenty of room. Any idea which SCSI variants are going to be compatible with this? From what I read, the controller is SCSI-2 narrow (8-bit,) but I'm really not clear on the extent to which later SCSI variants are backwards-compatible with earlier controllers...
 
So am curious. How many VUPs is this vaxstation 4000? If I understand correctly 1 VUP = an 11/780. In comparison, I have a KA630 microvax II here that I have never run (and would probably want to trade for an 11/73) and am wondering how many VUPs KA630 was....

Since I can still edit this post, I found the answer here: http://www.pyramiddec.com/VUPPerformance.htm

This 4000/60 is 12 VUPs. My KA630 is 0.9 VUPs.

Lou
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I was looking at that earlier...seems that the really high-end models can get quite a bit higher than that, but 12 VUP ain't nothing to sneeze at...I'm sure the 256KB L2 cache is a big factor in that.
 
commodorejohn said:
I'm not too concerned about aesthetics, though I would like to avoid the hockey-puck mouse. Any idea which mice are compatible with my VAXStation? I found this for pretty cheap, but it's got some kind of weird connector. The PCXAS line are all a nice sane mouse shape, but apparently some of them are PS/2 mice or something? It's all pretty confusing...
Click to expand...

The 4000 uses the DIN style mice and nothing else AFAIK. It does have a DB15 that I would imagine goes to the breakout cable seen in later stuff like the DEC3000 AXP. I am not really sure though. Even those used DIN mice. The just plugged into the end of the cable instead of the box.

You really just want to find a cheap LK401 and VSXXX-GA Mouse. It is what came with it originally. I looked on ebay and a couple people claiming the mouse is VSXXX-GA compatible but, they are actually selling the PS/2 version which isn't. The VS4000 mouse port has a small key in the center. Ps/2 mice have a larger one towards the bottom. This auction for the hockey puck version has a good picture of the plug you want. http://www.ebay.com/itm/230801190933

I think the "PCXXX" part of all the other listing means ps/2. Might make sense if VS=VAXStation and PC=PC. I don't see any of the ones you want listed on ebay other than the overpriced puck. Personally I'd just play with it serially and over the network. VAXstation mice have always been hard to find and gone for a premium. Not that they are special just they never stayed with the systems and were eventually lost.
 
commodorejohn said:
Yeah; looking around some FAQs, it seems that the 1GB limit only applied to the 3000 models. It sounds like there might be an 8GB limit, but that's plenty of room. Any idea which SCSI variants are going to be compatible with this? From what I read, the controller is SCSI-2 narrow (8-bit,) but I'm really not clear on the extent to which later SCSI variants are backwards-compatible with earlier controllers...
Click to expand...

I've never run into any issues with any scsi drive with a 50 pin connector on a VS4000. It's pretty forgiving on termination too.
 
mc68010 said:
I think the "PCXXX" part of all the other listing means ps/2. Might make sense if VS=VAXStation and PC=PC. I don't see any of the ones you want listed on ebay other than the overpriced puck. Personally I'd just play with it serially and over the network. VAXstation mice have always been hard to find and gone for a premium. Not that they are special just they never stayed with the systems and were eventually lost.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they do seem to be difficult to come by - certainly not at prices I'd pay. Luckily I'm getting an LK401 and a couple of hockey pucks in trade from another member here, so that'll take care of things for the time being and I can keep an eye out for a VSXXX-GA for something less than single-malt Scotch prices. Of course, that still leaves the video to sort out, but since both 3W3-to-BNC and BNC-to-VGA cables seem to be straight wires, I'm presuming I can buy a 3W3 and VGA connector off Digikey and cut out the overpriced middleman with some decent-quality wire?

mc68010 said:
I've never run into any issues with any scsi drive with a 50 pin connector on a VS4000. It's pretty forgiving on termination too.
Click to expand...
Good to hear, that'll simplify things quite a bit. I already have a 1GB drive that should fit the bill, and 4GB drives seem to be easy to come by; how much space does a decent VMS 7.3 install take?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top