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PiDP-8/I

Marty said:
I need to know How to make my PIDP 8 come up in Pidp 8 mode instead of Deep Thought mode..
I don't know How to change it back..
Click to expand...

Hi Marty,

Here is an excerpt from a recent post on the PiDP-8 Forum:

The most important thing to know about that is that it is a separate program from the modified SimH+PiDP-8 simulator.
Both need exclusive access to the front panel and switches, so you need to shut one down in order to use the other.

To switch from PDP-8 mode to Deeper Thought 2 mode:

$ sudo systemctl stop pidp8
$ sudo systemctl start deeper

Then vice versa to switch back:

$ sudo systemctl stop deeper
$ sudo systemctl start pidp8

I hope this helps...

smp
 
Hi All;

Thank You, SMP, I will try it, later and let You know..
For Now, what I did was take out that SC Card, the one with Deeper Thought 2 and Programmed another one that I had with the PiDP 8..
And so I just changed SD Cards, which was an easy solution..
I will have to take it apart to change the SD Card back, and try Your Suggestion, so it may be awhile..
But, Thank You for the Suggestion/ information..

THANK YOU Marty
 
smp said:
Hi Marty,

Here is an excerpt from a recent post on the PiDP-8 Forum:

The most important thing to know about that is that it is a separate program from the modified SimH+PiDP-8 simulator.
Both need exclusive access to the front panel and switches, so you need to shut one down in order to use the other.

To switch from PDP-8 mode to Deeper Thought 2 mode:

$ sudo systemctl stop pidp8
$ sudo systemctl start deeper

Then vice versa to switch back:

$ sudo systemctl stop deeper
$ sudo systemctl start pidp8

I hope this helps...

smp
Click to expand...

It's not easy. The switches have different meaning in both simulator. Very important that these two programs are not running at the same time or the system will keep booting and acting crazy. You need to be able to get to a keyboard and HDMi screen. Here is what works for me:

Assume you have your PiDP set to boot into deeper thought (what I have). I have Debian Jessie running with networking and an external screen/keyboard, I installed the pidp first, and then deeper thought 2 second. The result is that deeper thought 2 is now the "dominant" default.

To jump into the PiDP8 simH that uses the front panel , from a "deeper is running" system:

$ sudo systemctl stop deeper

set switches to the version of PiDP8 you want (i.e. from far left 101 111 if you want OS/8...)

$ sudo systemctl start pidp8

$ sudo ./pdp.sh

When you reboot (to go back into deeper thought) be sure to set Sing Step and Sing Inst UP and start and stop UP.

I am going to guess that my directions do not work for everyone. The disable command is not the same thing as stop! Only use disable / enable if you want to change which of the two you boot into. Make sure the one you don't want is turned off first, then turn on the one you do want.

Bill
 
Folks,

Way back in post #64 of this thread I mentioned that I had bought a bamboo box to make a simulated VR12 to go with the 8/I. Well, in my typical slow fashion a year has gone by and I finally finished : http://www.vcfed.org/forum/album.php?albumid=328&attachmentid=36668 .

I like the way it came out. I used a 10" LCD 1280x800. When connected to the Pi by HDMI, it's scanning 720 lines and leaving a black frame, but that's OK. I bought a bare LCD, then sealed it to a piece of acrylic, then sealed the acrylic to the black plastic sheet cut to sit in the lip of the box (in the same manner the PiDP-8/I front panel sits in its box. The acrylic sheet protects the LCD and adds an interesting depth dimension that kind of reminds me of a proper CRT : http://www.vcfed.org/forum/album.php?albumid=328&attachmentid=36669 .

With my newfound interest in 3d printing, I was able to print (then paint) nice frames to go around the openings I cut in the sides of the PiDP-8/I and the monitor. The frame on the monitor is more like a tunnel because it reaches far into the enclosure to get to the display controller board. The LCD I bought from SainSmart didn't have a very long ribbon cable between the panel and the controller. It worked out good enough. http://www.vcfed.org/forum/album.php?albumid=328&attachmentid=36670 and http://www.vcfed.org/forum/album.php?albumid=328&attachmentid=36671.

I jacked the console font way up in size and now it feels more like a terminal. I'm using a mini USB wireless keyboard/mouse at the moment and the whole affair is quite compact. My next steps though are to make the software changes to use the screen as a VR12 and go back to using a real terminal as the console.

Lou

PS. A while back (post #61) I had also posted on my work to add a second serial line to the PiDP-8/I for connection of the console printer at addresses 40/41. I packaged it in a little box with a proper DTE DB25M. I also added a power LED and LEDS for TX/RX/CTS/RTS : http://www.vcfed.org/forum/album.php?albumid=328&attachmentid=36673 and http://www.vcfed.org/forum/album.php?albumid=328&attachmentid=36672 . Sadly I cracked the cover. Rather than make a new one, I may make a label for the lid that covers the crack and labels the status LEDs.
 
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Well, I was able to run the VC8E/VR12 emulation and run Spacewar on the HDMI connected monitor. It took some figuring out though and some hardware upgrading.

There is a thread which was extremely helpful : https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/pidp-8/J6rXWg8btYY . It appears that most people play Spacewar on the PiDP-8/I using a network connected laptop running Processing. I am not a big fan of relying on a PC for a vintage computing experience. Fortunately this thread above solves the problem by providing a replacement of the standard spacewar boot image with one that facilitates using openvg and the local HDMI as the display. I needed to install openvg, and then the rest of the needed files with instructions are in the first post of the thread.

I did upgrade to the Pi 3, which is really fast and has on-board wireless Ethernet. I again had to do the serial port mod to the Pi 3 (remove R23,24) again so that I can use my real serial console terminal. Using the switch register switches to move the ships is painful, so I may have to build controllers and bring jacks out to the back panel of the bamboo box from the SR.

The emulated display ends up a little small on the screen since it does not use the full height of the screen. Most likely I will not be fully happy until I build an omnibus VC8E clone, put it in my 8/e, and connect it to my HP 1335A X-Y display.

Lou
 
Hi, I purchased one of Oscar's kits back in 2015. It is still in the package and I haven't started to build it yet. I don't think I'm going to get around to it in the near future either. I'm thinking of putting it on a well known auction site for someone else to get the pleasure out of it. If anyone on here wants it drop me a PM before I advertise it over then next few days. Thanks.
 
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