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I need docs for a PDP-11/84-E

m_thompson

m_thompson

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Jul 8, 2014
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Location
Rhode Island, USA
The original PDP-11/84-A had a 12 slot backplane with the power supply at the right side of backplane. NPG jumpers are on a special MDM board in slot 1. The Maintenance Print Set, Maintenance Guide, and Installation and Technical Reference Guide all exist got this chassis.

I just started working on a PDP-11/84-E. This system has the power supply in the back of the chassis, so it has lots more room for Unibus boards. It doesn't need and MDM board so it supports two PMI memory boards, and the NPG jumpers are on the top of the 9-slot backplane in the front right corner. The prints for the 11/84-E have all of the details on the power supply and fans, but nothing on the backplane. I can't find a Maintenance Guide for the 11/84-E. Bitsavers has the User and Maintenance Guide for the PDP-11/94-E, which should be close to the PDP-11/84-E except for the CPU board, memory, and APS module.

Is there any other documentation available for the PDP-11/84-E or the PDP-11/94-E?
 
I looked through the list on Manx. Unfortunately I found all of the listed documents already, and for several that I could use, Manx says "No copies known to be online." Hopefully someone will have some paper copies and we can fix "No copies known to be online."
 
I also have an 11/84E and it runs fine using a UniBone to emulate various disk drives. One problem I had when trying to get it running was that when bought it, it not come with the M7756 minimum load card. Without that card in place the CPU error code 77 comes up. There is no ODT and the 77 code leads youto believe you have a “hung Bus”. What actually is happening is that the 5volt supply comes on but the 12 volt supply doesn’t because of the lack of a minimum power load. I happened to buy a M7556 and stuck it in the 11/84 then everything worked perfectly. I mention this experience in this thread in case anyone else has this problem.
 
Thanks for the note about the M7556 MLM module. My 11/84 has one. I have not powered it on, so I don't know what is working. That should happen tomorrow.

The configuration when I received it is below. I plan to power it up with just the MLM module installed, then with the processor, one RAM, and a Unibus Terminator. If that works, then add more boards and see if it still works. I have another 9 slot backplane I could install and put even more controllers in.

I have lots of SCSI disks that I could use with the CMD controller if that works. If not I have some 5 1/4" RA drives I could use with the UDA50, and there is an RL02 already in the rack.

I keep thinking about a Unibone, but that defeats the whole purpose of having a big chassis.

Slot Board Model Description
1 M8190-AF KDJ11-BF 11/83-84 CPU J11 CPU 18MHz with 2 boot & diagnostic ROMs, FPJ11-AA
2 M8637-EC MSV11-JB/JC 2-Mbyte ECC RAM
3 M8637-EF MSV11-JB/JC 2-Mbyte ECC RAM
4 M8191 KTJ11-B 11/84 UNIBUS PMI controller with 4 optional boot ROM sockets (M9312 compatible)
5 M7762 RL11 RL01/02 disk controller
6 M7485-YA UDA50 UNIBUS to radial disk interface PR board with no ROMs (SDI disk controller)
7 M7486 UDA50 Controller for SDI disk drives (UDA SI)
8 CMD CDU-720/TM SCSI disk controller
9AB M9302 11/04 UNIBUS terminator, far end
9CD G7273 Unibus Grant Module
9EF M7556 MLM Mininum load module +5V 1A -15V 375mA, 11/84
10AB
10CDEF M7856 DL11-W RS-232 SLU & realtime clock option
11 M7792 DEUNA DEUNA port module, UNIBUS to ethernet microprocessor. (1 of 2)
12 M7793 DEUNA DEUNA link module, M7792 to ethernet bus line unit. (2 of 2)
13 M7819 DZ11-A 8-line double-buffered async EIA with modem control (50 to 96-Kbaud, 64-byte silo)
14 M7819 DZ11-A 8-line double-buffered async EIA with modem control (50 to 96-Kbaud, 64-byte silo)
15 M7819 DZ11-A 8-line double-buffered async EIA with modem control (50 to 96-Kbaud, 64-byte silo)
16 M7819 DZ11-A 8-line double-buffered async EIA with modem control (50 to 96-Kbaud, 64-byte silo)
17 M7819 DZ11-A 8-line double-buffered async EIA with modem control (50 to 96-Kbaud, 64-byte silo)
18AB M9302 11/04 UNIBUS terminator, far end
18BC G7273 Unibus Grant Module
18EF
 
I pulled all of the Unibus boards and power the system on. It stuck at POST #77. At least the DC OK light went on, and the fans worked.

I replaced the Unibus boards in slots 5-8 and it passed all of the POSTS and stopped at POST #4 which means that it is waiting for console input. I need to connect a VT220 and see if ODT is working and then try pdp11gui and vtserver, and eventually install Ultrix-11 or BSD UNIX 2.11. I have a second set of boards for this system that I bought many years ago that I need to test.

1661130174329.png
 
I connected a PC running PuTTY and got a console prompt. I was able to dump the current configuration.

I flipped the switch to Halt and was able to connect PDP11GUI. That looks like it will be an interesting tool.
 
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