NEXT computers hook up and after boot help

[KLund1]

I have come into a collection of NEXT hardware. some cubes, a few slabs ( B/W, color, 1 ??), monitors (2 B/w, 2 ??), several external drives, a few of the triangular speaker hub units. printers. Lots of various cables most seem like scsi or printer cabels, but they have next logos on them, HDdatadisks, mice, and keyboards.
The computer are all in various states of completeness. About half seem to be missing one component or another.
I only know the usual general history of Next, and watched a few you-tube videos about these systems. I fumbled my way around these systems and got about half to power up. I got 2 to boot to a screen. They both show "blk@ boot:"
I know little of Linux terminal. I know about the same small amount for mac's, except point and click on the finder thing. (I have never installed a mac os before, dos/win so many I lost track)
Is there a site or sites that describe how to properly hook up all the various cables to the different next systems and peripherals?
Also what each card does in a cube system,and what slot they should go?
How about how to install the right NextStep OS version for the right hardware combination. How to wipe a previous OS install? Also how to login in and use the two systems that I can get into now?
Also I have several full height HD's that seem to fit in the cubes. How can I test them.
I have many NEXT books. but they all talk and show circuit diagrams, and assembly listings that far above my pay-grade.
Are there any troubleshooting guides out there?
I have a lot more questions.
Are there any guides, or tutorials out there? But obliviously my bad google searching did not find much.
Thanks

 

[czunit]

Right off the bat I would say simplify your testing as much as possible. You have two systems "that you can get into", let's focus on this first.
1) What are they
2) What have you cabled up
3) What do they do?

Pics could help as well. First goal is to get the system running, then see what you have, then see if you can make something boot, then see if you can log in, and go from there.

C

 

[powerlot]

Do you happen to have service manuals if you mention circuit diagrams? I'm desperately looking for a complete one for the NeXT 400dpi laser printer.

I don't know anything about the cubes, but the trianglular speaker boxes are required for the slabs (the cable needs to go in a certain way). If it refuses to power up it coud be a flat/missing PRAM battery.

If one of the color monitors is the Sony one (big switch in front right and some knobs next to it) its probably got leaky caps all over, same as the laser printers and the sound boxes.

The procedure to reset the passwords or configure the boot devices after the battery goes flat is described in the user manuals

 

[czunit]

The Next printer is basically a Canon engine fed from the NeXT which does all the rendering. Pretty simple.

The 030,040 B/W cubes and the B/W Nextstations used a cable that connected from the system to the NeXT monitor which had two ports for the mouse and keyboard. These were non-ADB. for the most part.

The color NextStations had a 3 way cable that plugged into the monitor (13W3 standard IIRC) and the "soundbox". That then had either a non-ADB port set for the NeXT keyboard and monitor OR an ADB port set to hook up the NeXT ADB mouse (more like a round puck with a wedge) and NeXT ADB keyboard (lighter than the original NeXT keyboard).

So there are two different soundboxes for the Color NeXTs and two types of keyboards and mice. Mono NeXTs and Cubes had the cable go to the Mono monitor which had plugs in the back for sound and Keyboard.

C
(Early NeXT Developer)

 

[KLund1]

Thanks everyone! All the help is very much appreciated.
I just learned about that they need a good battery to boot. The currently installed batteries are dead, or above 2volts. None are leaking, thankfully. what is the lowest bat voltage these need to boot? Is there a less expensive source for those batteries? Digikey/mouser have them for $5 each. I think I need 10 or more. Some of the cubes have 2 or more 'cards' with empty battery holders.
I only have one 'Y' cable. It has 2 D19's and one NEXT/SUN monitor connection. I have several D19 to D19 straight through cables, long and short. With these I was able to get the 2 NextStations(b/w) to boot. I tried the color slabs with this B/w monitor and the fans spun up on a couple, but not others.
I also just found out that there is 2 versions of the triangle speaker unit. I'll need to take a closer look at those as well.
Powerlot: I will take a closer look at the manuals and see if the printer docs are there. I have one of those printers so I probably have what you need. I'll report back later. Where are the user manuals you mention?

A general question. How best to clean these very dirty/dusty cases. I saw on a video that the paint used does not like ISO. Will 409/fantastic be ok? Or just a damp microfiber cloth(s) and a toothbrush? I assume magic erasers are not a good ideal? (these are my go to cleaner) Same question for monitors, printers, triangles, peripherals, keyboards, nice?
Again thanks for any help!

 

[czunit]

Cloth and gentle cleaner. Please don't try to mix and match cables till you have figured out what is what (I'm not sure how one can plug the color NeXT into a B/W monitor). Buy a few batteries and get the good systems working first, then start branching out.

 

[powerlot]

The Next printer is basically a Canon engine fed from the NeXT which does all the rendering. Pretty simple.

If you're good with these printers, we're struggling here and need some help: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/next-400dpi-laser-printer-restoration.1242501/

I just learned about that they need a good battery to boot. The currently installed batteries are dead, or above 2volts. None are leaking, thankfully. what is the lowest bat voltage these need to boot? Is there a less expensive source for those batteries? Digikey/mouser have them for $5 each. I think I need 10 or more. Some of the cubes have 2 or more 'cards' with empty battery holders.

Mine was at 2.8V, machine still booting and hasn't leaked at the time of replacement. I think those yellow Panasonic batteries are made from virgin sacrifices as I haven't seen one leak yet. I'd buy 1-2 batteries of each needed type at least to see what the machine's condition, though you could probably bodge something else in to test it.

Powerlot: I will take a closer look at the manuals and see if the printer docs are there. I have one of those printers so I probably have what you need. I'll report back later. Where are the user manuals you mention?

The setup is described in the "Owner's Guide", do you have it? See attachments

PS: Please check the fans before running the machines. The one in my slab was completely seized and needed some cleaning and lubrication

 

[KLund1]

I went through the box of manual and other NEXT stuff. The schismatic stuff was for Apple computes. not NEXT. Sorry.
I found NextStep OS docs and disks that match the cover in the above thread. But that owners guide was not included.
Thanks for those pages above. That will help A LOT.

I too a lot of pictures. I'll group them in following posts.

 

[KLund1]

Cables

 

[KLund1]

Monitors
What is the difference between a N4000 and N4000A?

 

[KLund1]

Slab / Pizza Box 's

Left to right notes"
NextStation TrueColor - Power up, fan spins, raster on display, has Quantum HD,1/2 ram slots filled, no display on B/W monitor (Need to have color monitor attached?), Battery 2.9v
NextStation Color - No ram, no HD, Battery 2.9v
NextStation TrueColor - Power up, fan spins, raster on display, has CF to SCSI adapter installed. No boot screen, (because I need to connect a color monitor not the B/w?)
NextStation - has CF to SCSI adapter installed. No case fan. 3/4 ram slots filled, no raster on B/w display. dead battery (probably why it will not power up?)
NextStation - has CF to SCSI adapter installed. Boots and shows "blk@ boot:" battery 2.0v

 

[KLund1]

Media:
The left disk appears to be a syquest of some sort? When we get to the cubes could you post if any of them have the correct drive?
The middle I think is the NEXT "standard" HD removeable disk. Many have NEXT labels.
The right were in the same box but I'm not sure about those.

 

[KLund1]

Speakers boxes
What is the difference between N4004, and N4004A ?
The PCB I think is an N4004A

 

[KLund1]

Keyboards

The bottom KB has no cables, but looks like it uses S-video or Apple ADB. I found no cables that fit this keyboard in the box of cables. What should I uses? Does this KB usually go with the Color slabs/pizzaboxes?

 

[KLund1]

Cubes
Notes left to right, 2 shots each front back.
If you can tell from the front, what is each of the drives installed?
From the back can you say what each of the boards installed are called?

- Works, boot to same msg and the slab unit above. (these all came from the same source, so they were probably set up very similarly) I see lightly different boot messages when connected to the different monitor ports, but end up and the same msg. CD-Rom and DataHD?
- No power, no boot, no fan spin. battery at 1.8v. I think it has a floppy, and DataHD?
- No Boot, no batteries on the cards, need 2, 1 each on right side cards. NO DataHD, but had a CR-Rom? What is the left card?
- No boot, no drives, but room for FD and DataHD

 

[KLund1]

External drives

Can any of the systems boot from one of these. If so how to instruct it to do that.
If these are attached to a working system, will the drive just show on the desktop like a MAC?
I assume standard SCSI cables will work?

 

[KLund1]

Other Items:
Left to right
Extra PSU, can it be tested outside of a case?
Middle pic - this is not a NEXT psu?
The last 2 pics - These are the DataHD's or CR-Rom drive. Or something else I lised completly?

 

[KLund1]

Well that's it for now.
Lots of questions up there.
Whatever help you all can add will be very much appreciated!
Thanks

 

[MrImprovement]

Yes you can boot from CDROM and they hook up like "regular" SCSI.

 

[MrImprovement]

The original NeXT systems shipped with an MO drive and not necessarily a hard drive. The MO drives are read/write but make a lot of noise while reading or writing.