• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Putting a PDP-11 back to work

Many thanks Nige for tracking me down. :D

I've asked a question to the seller in Germany (the one in the USA doesn't look as if it is booting up properly - mine shows that screen often so it might mean it has a similar disc issue). Hopefully I can get the guy in Germany to try a couple of commands so I can see what software is on there, and also make sure he knows how to park the disc before shipping! I might be better driving over rather than trusting the shipping companies.

I've not made any progress with the existing one - it's not been switched on since my last post to save further damage. But it would be lovely to have one working just for hobby use.
 
Brilliant, thanks. That's way past my capabilities, but I'm hoping to take up the offer of a kind member on here for assistance.

I bought that Genrad from German eBay. It originated in Philips Research, Eindhoven and they seem to have done clever things inside. There are custom wires leading to a socket at the back marked ethernet (looks like a printer socket). The hard drive on the new machine seems to be good, but none of the commands I can think of will get it past the initial DEV> prompt into what I think of as a command line where the prompt is just a dot. I need a dot prompt so I can type in rta (real time analysis) to get the front panel to light up and the basic functions of the machine to work.

I'm hoping to use the hard drive in my machine, and just need to transfer the data across. Exactly how to do that will where I'll need to take up offers of help.
 
VTServer is good if you just want to make simple disk images. Running over the serial port, it's not the fastest method of transfer, but it's not bad for a few MB with the serial port speed cranked up.
 
Lou - N2MIY said:
Or, don't forget Will's TU58.exe (which is what I use.)
Click to expand...

Oh, I didn't follow Proculopsis' link and wrongly assumed it went to Will's emulator. I never did get that running reliably last time I tried. For some reason it'd just hang at seemingly random intervals, so I was lucky to get a clean transfer once every three tries. Do you run it from a real DOS machine? I was using XP at the time.

I was just thinking about having another look at "the other" emulator and having a crack at porting it to Linux, but luckily it looks like someone got that working already. I'll have to try that and see if I can get it working any better than the DOS one.
 
I'm not exactly a million miles away, although it would be a muddle-through for me at best.
If you need a second set of eyes with a certain amount of vintage computer knowlege give me a shout when the children have gone back to school, I could probably pop over for an hour or two.
 
Steve,

Yes, I run Will's emulator under dos. It works quite well that way. I keep a dos laptop (dec hinote ultra 2000, of course) around for this. For the record, here's the link: http://www.fpns.net/willy/pdp11/tu58-emu.htm . I have made bootable XXDP and RT-11 TU58 images, which are quite helpful for getting a machine going for the first time. Will lives about an hour from me and I see him a few times a year.

Lou
 
I also have GR 2515. I programmed one in the Navy 30 years ago, and got it for nostalgia reasons, like you. Mine came with NO manuals - do you have the system manual and the TSL2 programming guide? If you do, perhaps we can email each other? I am very keen to get a photocopy or pdf, and I have been looking relentlessly on web searches, old GenRad employees, etc. I would sure appreciate the help.
Interesting you have the SDRC software ... I used that some but that sure seems like a million years ago!
Perhaps we can trade notes. Take care and thanks!
 
MANY THANKS!!!! I will start digging!
Am looking for system manual for GenRad 2515, and a TSL2 (time series language) programming guide.
Precursor to TSL2 was TSL25, if anyone has a guide about that out there .....
Anyway, one step at a time. I need to test this unit this week and see how it comes up.....
Thanks again ... ddj
 
I picked up a 2511 on eBay last week

Another collector in the area had the basic service manual for the 2515
which is now up under http://bitsavers.org/test_equipment/genrad/25xx

I'm working on postprocessing the software manual this morning

There is a second volume 2515-0102 which contains the schematics.

I hadn't noticed this before, but Tucker Electronics closed this past summer :-(
who used to be a good source for manuals.

I also was given a 2517 unit this morning.

One of the reasons they are interesting to me is they used an AED WINC-05 mfm/floppy controller
When I was at AED (1984-86) , the guy who designed it (Bill Morgan) was in the office across the hall from me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top