• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

DECmate III to VR201 cable pinouts?

T

thunter0512

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2020
Messages
864
Location
Perth in Western Australia
I would like to make a video cable to connect a VR201 display to a DECmate III.

Is there a cable diagram with pinouts for both sides somewhere?

Thanks and best regards
Tom Hunter
 
thunter0512 said:
I would like to make a video cable to connect a VR201 display to a DECmate III.

Is there a cable diagram with pinouts for both sides somewhere?
Click to expand...

I think that's the BCC02. I have three of them, I think, and I see on on eBay for $10. (Shipping to you might be slow and/or expensive.)

It wouldn't surprise me if you could get away with a couple of 15 pin IDC and a straight-through cable, either.

If you need it, I can take some time to probe one of mine, and confirm whether it looks anything like this:
http://www.larosse.net/pc100/dec100-vr201-cable.html

Vince
 
Thank you Vince.

Sometimes life is nice and simple. :)

I made an IDC cable with female DA15s on either side, then plugged it into the VR201, plugged an LK201 keyboard into the VR201 and after power on it says "DECMATE" in the center and there is a fat cursor in the top left. Clear sign of life. :)

Of course there is some amount of CRT cataracts but it is way better than the VR14 was before I fixed it.

A second VR201 I tried is as dead as a Dodo, so that one will be a project for another rainy day.

Now I need to find a disk image to get this baby doing something more useful than saying "DECMATE" and looking cute. :)

Best regards
Tom Hunter
 
Wish I had a way to create bootable media for you. As of now I do not. Maybe I can make a copy of the system test diskette I have and send you a copy in a properly rigid package so the disk doesn't get messed up.
 
tradde said:
Wish I had a way to create bootable media for you. As of now I do not. Maybe I can make a copy of the system test diskette I have and send you a copy in a properly rigid package so the disk doesn't get messed up.
Click to expand...

Many older PCs with a floppy controller and running MSDOS will allow you to run Dave Dunfield's "ImageDisk" program to both save original floppy disks in Dave's IMD format, but also then to write brand new floppy disks with this saved floppy image.

Dave's software is available from here: http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/

The software package comes with a utility called "TESTFDC.COM" which analyses the floppy controller to help you work out if it is able to work with ImageDisk. Not all floppy controllers will work with ImageDisk.

I find the software very easy to use and extremely useful.

I have a dedicated old Pentium PC which boots MSDOS from a Compact FLASH (CF) disk using a cheap IDE to CF converter from Ebay and has both 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch floppies. Via a small adapter board I can alternatively also connect 8 inch floppy drives. This setup allows me to image a large range of floppy disk and also write images back to disk.

There are more dedicated boards for imaging (e.g. KryoFlux) but ImageDisk worked fine for all my needs.

Best regards
Tom Hunter
 
Too bad I no longer have an older PC with a floppy controller. I got rid of my old Linux box before I moved from Colorado and before I inherited my small collection of DEC machines. Didn't think I needed it anymore and it was just going to take up valuable moving space. It was a good sized tower case. I regret now recycling it.
 
tradde said:
Too bad I no longer have an older PC with a floppy controller. I got rid of my old Linux box before I moved from Colorado and before I inherited my small collection of DEC machines. Didn't think I needed it anymore and it was just going to take up valuable moving space. It was a good sized tower case. I regret now recycling it.
Click to expand...

Older PCs with floppy controllers are still plentiful compared to PDP-8 machines.
Try some recycling place or your local rubbish (garbage) tip, Facebook Marketplace or if all else fails Epay. :)

Best regards
Tom Hunter
 
thunter0512 said:
Older PCs with floppy controllers are still plentiful compared to PDP-8 machines.
Try some recycling place or your local rubbish (garbage) tip, Facebook Marketplace or if all else fails Epay. :)
Click to expand...
Yep, I know this is true. I check eBay from time to time. But I am not sure exactly what I need to make sure I get that will guarantee a 5.25 floppy support at 1.2MB. Most ads don't even give the specifics of any included drive. I have looked around here for recycling places. Really have not found any that don't require me to go down there to see what they have. I don't use Facebook. Craigslist sometimes has stuff but once again not sure what I need that will make sure I have that floppy support. I remember motherboards having a connector for the floppy. Most I see don't ahve that so is it an ISA card they use?
 
You don't have to go that far back to ISA floppy controllers. All PCs up to at least 2005 had floppy drives with the floppy controller integrated on the motherboard. I am pretty sure you can still get some brand new industrial PCs with a floppy controller. If you found a DECmate II, then you should have no trouble finding a suitable PC to image floppy disks. :)

Best regards
Tom Hunter
 
thunter0512 said:
You don't have to go that far back to ISA floppy controllers. All PCs up to at least 2005 had floppy drives with the floppy controller integrated on the motherboard. I am pretty sure you can still get some brand new industrial PCs with a floppy controller. If you found a DECmate II, then you should have no trouble finding a suitable PC to image floppy disks. :)

Best regards
Tom Hunter
Click to expand...

The Decmate II and others found me. I was not really looking to acquire any at that time. Thanks for the other info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top