Earlier this year I purchased the 32K RAM board kit that Vince was offering (http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...r-the-PDP-8-e-8-f-8-m-and-8-a-ends-March-31st).
I finally got around to assembling it:D
Anyway, after some incredible stupidity and luck (see below) it's up and running alongside my 8K of real core.
I ran the memory checkerboard test for nearly an hour last night with zero errors.
In the incredible stupidity department: I thought it would be a good idea to pull out my three board 8K memory set and first test the 32K ram board solo. That went well, so I disabled bank 0 and 1 so the new board could co-exist with my 8K core stack. I then proceeded to plug the three boards back in and turned the machine on. It was immediately apparent there were SERIOUS problems; random lights on and no response from any of the controls! Shut everything down and found that I had actually installed the board containing the core UPSIDE DOWN! There are four edge connectors on both sides of the card and I STUPIDLY wasn't paying the slightest attention when plugging it in...what a MORON.
In the incredible luck department: figuring I had pretty much nothing to lose at that point, I plugged the board in correctly and turned the machine back on. Much to my shock and amazement, not only was there no damage, Chekmo II was still uncorrupted, started right up, and proceeded to beat me yet again
Anyway, now that I've got a full box o' memory, it's time to get TSS8 running!
I finally got around to assembling it:D
Anyway, after some incredible stupidity and luck (see below) it's up and running alongside my 8K of real core.
I ran the memory checkerboard test for nearly an hour last night with zero errors.
In the incredible stupidity department: I thought it would be a good idea to pull out my three board 8K memory set and first test the 32K ram board solo. That went well, so I disabled bank 0 and 1 so the new board could co-exist with my 8K core stack. I then proceeded to plug the three boards back in and turned the machine on. It was immediately apparent there were SERIOUS problems; random lights on and no response from any of the controls! Shut everything down and found that I had actually installed the board containing the core UPSIDE DOWN! There are four edge connectors on both sides of the card and I STUPIDLY wasn't paying the slightest attention when plugging it in...what a MORON.
In the incredible luck department: figuring I had pretty much nothing to lose at that point, I plugged the board in correctly and turned the machine back on. Much to my shock and amazement, not only was there no damage, Chekmo II was still uncorrupted, started right up, and proceeded to beat me yet again
Anyway, now that I've got a full box o' memory, it's time to get TSS8 running!