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11/25 turned VAX?

It looks like one of the other SCSI cards I got in the card sort thred.
I can't unfortunately buy the RA82. The recycler ahs a VERY strict data destruction policy where all drives to be sold bust be passed over with DBAN (no closed-source alternatives allowed. It's DBAN or bust) and if that system is unable for erase it, the disk must be destroyed. At the very least, I can buy the unit but I have to remove the drive inside of it, effectively rendering it useless.

This is all in compliance with the "Grandma's Secret Recipe" laws that BC is strict about.
Also, the RA drives have connectors that I don't see on the 11. Two round ports, and two sets of four conductor red wire.
 
There is usually a cable that goes from the UDA50 SDI controller to a breakout panel where the individual drives' cables can plug in (the red cables you saw). The UDA50 has a shrouded 32 pin header connector where the cable to the breakout panel plugs in. A missing breakout cable assembly is no big deal, because I have made my own.

Sad and ignorant to hear about the way the RA82 will be disposed of. Because it can't be wiped with IBM-PC compatible software, it must be smashed. Lame.

If that is an M7485/M7486 UDA50 in your 11/84 and you go the SCSI route with this machine and hence don't need the SDI controller, let me know if you decide to part with it.

Also, the card in slot 11 is in a unibus SPC slot, so it can't be a CQD220. Maybe you can list the card numbers actually on the handles (dec cards) or on the emulex model sticker (emulex cards).

Lou
 
Okay, so immediately I can confirm slots 1-4 are correct as listed on the chart
Slot 5 should have an M3105 but contains a G7273 so that's been removed.
Slot 6 should have an M7754 but contains an emulex CU1110401 card (no idea on what that is).
Slot 7 should have an M7762 but has another G7273 installed.
Slot 8 should have an M3105 but has another G7273 installed.
Slot 9 should have an M7273 but has an M7485 installed.
Slot 10 should have an M7258 but has an M7486 installed. (okay, so I do have the controller for the drive)
Slot 11 should have a G7273 but has an Emulex TU1210401. One of the connectors have a piece of tape on it marked " From 11/44"
Slot 12 should have an M9302, G7273, and an M87556 and they are all there.
I should technically redo the chart but it's all done in pen so I can't erase and modify it.
I want to plug in an M7093 and M8722 to tweak the specs a little. All you gotta do is plug them into a slot and they should work, right?

Edit:, I probably don't need either card it seems as I just got a null modem cable working and it's got 2mb ECC ram and an FPA CPU option already installed.
 
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NeXT said:
Slot 11 should have a G7273 but has an Emulex TU1210401. One of the connectors have a piece of tape on it marked " From 11/44"
Click to expand...

Possibly that is a TC12, which is a TS11 compatible Pertec interface tape controller. Not anywhere near as cool as a Unibus SCSI controller. A Pertec inteface tape controller would be used with a 9-track tape drive.

Does it look like it matches the board described in this manual?

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/emulex/TC1251002-E_TC12tech_Jun83.pdf
 
The M7093 is an FP11 floating point processor, but you shouldn't use it in an 11/84. The 11/84 uses an 11/83 processor (DCJ11) and so the right FPU is a chip (FPJ11) that plugs into the 11/83 processor (M8190).

As for the M8722 memory, I am not familiar with it, but it may have switches for setting the base address. Be sure to find the manual for that memory online and read it so that you put it after the existing memory already in the machine.

Also, the G727s are bus grant cards, as you probably already know. They are in every unused CD slot and pass the bus grant interrupts and the DMA grant line. If you pull a board out that occupied the CD slots, be sure to put a grant card in its place.

The Emulex CU11 card may be some multi-terminal interface (fun for time-sharing OS) while the TU11 is a tape drive controller.

Since you lack the SCSI controller, perhaps you can find some way for that scrap dealer to sell you the RA82 as is, without taking anything out of it. Do you think he knows it's a disk? To him, it could just be junk like the 11/84.

Lou
 
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That looks alot like the UC18 I have in mine, so if true you have found a nice system. As Lou points out you might have
a UDA50 also. I have both in my 11/84. Having the SCSI board is very handy.
 
I'll try and see if I can drag it out of there under the guise it's another PDP but with a much beefier power supply. The only way that it would give away any sign it's a drive is the buttons on the front.
Regardless, you all know I don't have any unjust reasons. ;)

Possibly that is a TC12, which is a TS11 compatible Pertec interface tape controller.
Click to expand...

****http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs****

I still have two Qualstar drives (look like this) from my ISA pertec interface experiments and BOXES of 9-track tapes. I believe there might also be one more cipher branded rackmount drive at the recycler as well. Hopefully the power supply in it is not as bad as the one in my rebadged Cipher drive with a SCSI interface.

The M7093 is an FP11 floating point processor, but you shouldn't use it in an 11/84. The 11/84 uses an 11/83 processor (DCJ11) and so the right FPU is a chip (FPJ11) that plugs into the 11/83 processor (M8190).
Click to expand...
Yeah, I realized it would be redundant after I got a null modem cable working and saw it had an FPU already installed. Ditto with the memory when I could out it already had 2mb onboard (and the M8722 is only 256K).
 
Picked up the last of it today.

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So now I got a PDP-11/84 with an RA82 disk drive and a Cipher 9-track drive with a pertec interface. Not bad at all for a starter system. I'm still kicking myself for not buying the rack last week as it would of all fit perfectly. Now I have to find some craptastic half rack or something equally unappealing and lacks the switching PDU for the drives.

By the way, if you are local and happen to have a spare DEC half-rack with the switching PDU, please PM me. ;)

Unfortunately the latter two drives are a bit beat up. The 9-track drive has a busted door (I guess that can be fixed with epoxy or acetone) but the RA82 is a bit worse.

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for starters, the circuit breaker handle was not recessed like in the 11 so I forgot about it when I sat the drive up on its back and snapped it off. D'oh!
I'm hoping that JB weld will fix that. It does still power on with no nasty noises but the drive does not spin up. I'm assuming that it needs to be connected to the controller to see it do much else.
The other issue is that the cables ahve either been cut or are missing from the back and I ahve no way of figuring out how or where they plugged into the controller in the 11.
I have to get this drived erased as soon as possible. It's part of the agreement of the purchase.
 
Absolutely fantastic!!!! That's not a "starter system", it's a dream system! Yes, the rack would have been nice, but one will turn up eventually.

First, mind the white handle on top of the RA82 HDA. Before you spin the drive up, make sure that the heads are in the unlocked position.

I think you can repair that breaker handle with the JB Weld. If it breaks again, you can reinforce the repair by drilling a small hole in each of the mating pieces an use a bit of nail to go between the pieces and also be coated with JB weld.

The round drive startup sequencer plugs are missing. I will look on the back of my RA80 and tell you what to do there tonight. Basically, these drives draw so much current on spin-up, on a power up you would want one disk at a time to spin up. Since you only have one, that is no problem. I only have one also (originally from Tim) and there is a plug on the sequencer in connection that jumps some pins. No plug is required on the out. I suggest just poking wire in the holes (which I will pin-out tonight). You'll need to do this to spin the drive up.

Next, you will need to make a new cable for the RA82. I suggest making a cable that goes all the way from the UDA50 right to the board inside the RA82. I have done this from a KDA50 to an RA72. See this series of pictures: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/album.php?albumid=53&attachmentid=2756 There may have also been I thread I wrote about this. Basically the original red cable is unobtanium and so I made my cable from the little coaxes in PC VGA monitor cable and crimp header connectors. I can take all kinds of more detailed photos if you like. The UDA50 and KDA50 use identically the same cable.

Lou
 
Can I make it out of BNC coax cabling? I seem to have a surplus of BNC bulkheads and cable there.
The heads in terms of being locked were not really locked. :/ the diagram showed the lever in the middle and it was found there, not all the way to the right.
 
I thought of doing that myself, but the usual RG59 that everyone has tons of is just too big to deal with. The little tiny coax in the VGA monitor cables was even a little too big! The red coaxes were 0.1" wide, fitting nicely the 0.1" header plugs. The VGA monitor cables coaxes were ~0.130" diameter, but only four across was workable.

If you were thinking about trying to put BNC females on the ends of the bits of red cable that are still in the drive, it would be a royal pain. It is pretty small to work with and the center conductor and shield are really fine. I actually found the patents on the connectors and red cable (assigned to AMP, now part of Tyco) and there was special tooling involved to strip that cable and make up the connectors. Not at all something for even an advanced hobbyist.

To be technically complete the red cable has a 93 ohm impedance, while the VGA coax is 75. The length is short and the end connections with header connectiors are barbaric (can't be 93 ohms!) and so the loss and reflection introduced by my short homemade cable can't be too much worse than a long "correct" cable. The proof is in the pudding anyway, and it passed the diagnostic error free for an hour, so that was good enough for me.

As for the startup sequencer plug, I found the following: On your sequencer in connector, jumper the left (9 o'clock) and bottom (6 o'clock) pins.

So, jumper the pins, put the head shipping restraint lever in the unlocked position, plug it in, and spin it up! Even unconnected from the UDA50, it should come ready. Give it time though, there's lot of mass to spin up there.

Lou
 
I decided to go your way as well and I stripped apart a few monitor cables and now I got enough cable to start building a proper cable (also picked up enough 50-pin ribbon cable to reconnect the cipher drive). I'll look into making new and proper bulkhead connectors though.
I'll try powering the drive up again this weekend. Too busy for the rest of the week as well as I have to find an extension cord so I can plug the thing into the least used circuit in the house.
Speaking of which, I found the switching PDU module that fit in the back of the rack. The main power cord has been removed but I got it now too so all I really am missing is the rack and that's it. :D
 
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